Six members of the upper house, belonging to the former ruling coalition's parties, Tuesday set up a separate group to join other parties in 'national interest'. Four out of the six belong to PML-Q. They are Nilofer Bakhtiar, Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Wali Muhammad Badeni and Amjad Abbas while Asif Jatoi belongs to NPP and Mir Asrar Zahri is from BNP(Awami).
"Independence of judiciary, provincial autonomy and freedom of media are on the top of our agenda and we will even violate our party discipline if they try to impose their policies regarding these issues," Senator Nilofer Bakhtiar stated this while addressing a press conference here.
She said that her party did not pay any heed to the viewpoint of its members during the last five years. And award of party tickets for the February 18 elections was a matter of leadership's personal choice that could not be justified.
"In future we do not want to be a part of any decision sponsored by our parties posing threat to national interest. We apologise for supporting our parties on the issue of uniform (of President), promulgation of emergency and treatment with the judiciary," she said.
She said that they were not going to form any forward bloc rather they would compel their parties not to compromise on national interests. And the formation of this group does not have any personal interest, according to her. She said: "All we need is a powerful Senate that could play its role for the betterment of country."
While answering a question on possible impeachment of the President, she said that they had not decided yet but after having consultation with their members would define their role. "We are contacting other like-minded members to join us and are hopeful of a good response," she said.