ISLAMABAD: With the new Senate scheduled to meet on Tuesday (today) to elect its chairman and deputy chairman, Pakistan Peoples Party’s Yousaf Raza Gilani, the only contender for the post till late Monday, is rated as potentially the most probable for the coveted slot.
While speculation had not died around the possible emergence of the dark horse - former caretaker prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar - able to cut the ground from under Gilani’s feet, backed by the ubiquitous establishment as in Faisal Vawda, Mohsin Naqvi and Muhammad Aurangzeb’s win; yet the PPP camp insists that Gilani would not suffer the same fate as he did in March 2021 when he unexpectedly lost to Sadiq Sanjrani.
Gilani has the reported “blessing” of the power centres for his elevation to the position of chairman Senate, so stated a well-informed highly placed law maker.
“We are confident because we made a deal – we will support the PML-N to form the next government but in return we want some constitutional offices including the Senate Chair. Without us the government will fall,” said a senior PPP leader stipulating that his name not be used.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has announced that it would not participate in the chairman/deputy chairman Senate elections in protest against the postponement of Senate elections on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s 11 seats. PTI also moved Islamabad High Court (IHC) for postponement of Senate chairman/deputy chairman elections on Monday besides writing to Secretary Senate for poll postponement. The IHC had sought a reply from respondents till this report’s filing.
In the 96-seat new Senate, that will have 85 members after 43 new legislators are sworn in, the ruling coalition has 54 seats including PPP’s 24 seats followed by 19 seats of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), five seats of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), three seats of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) and three independents who have indicated they are supporting the treasury benches.
The ruling coalition may be pitted against 31 senators in the opposition: PTI with 20 senators, however, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) with five seats, Awami National Party (ANP) with three seats and political parties - Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q), Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) and National Party (NP) – with one seat each have to declare which candidate, if any, they will support.
Although, PML-Q is PML-N’s ally at the centre and in Punjab, its only lawmaker in Senate isKamil Ali Agha, a close confidante of incarcerated PTI leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, and he openly supports PTI.
However, a PML-N Senator admitted to Business Recorder that PTI was in position to have at least seven of its candidates elected as senators, increasing PTI seats from 20 to 27 to become the single largest political party, if Senate elections on 11 KP Assembly seats had not been postponed. But, this would not have made a major difference in the chairman Senate election, he insisted.
President PML-N Punjab Rana Sanaullah held speaker KP Assembly responsible for Senate polls postponement on 11 KP seats.
“By not administering oath to women lawmakers elected on reserved seats, the speaker violated the directives of Peshawar High Court and deprived the elected representatives of their due right to be part of the Provincial Assembly,” he told Business Recorder.
“Senate cannot wait forever for the speaker to administer oath,” he added.
PML-N had not finalised its deputy chairman candidate till this report was filed.
Traditionally, either of two posts, chairman or deputy chairman Senate, is given to a lawmaker hailing from Balochistan.
Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned a session of the Upper House of the Parliament on Tuesday (today) for the election of Senate chairman and deputy chairman amid the announcement of a boycott by the major opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
“In the exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 54 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the Senate to meet in the Parliament House, Islamabad on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 09:00 am,” President House said in a statement late Sunday night.
Newly-elected senators will take the oath on Tuesday (today) sitting of the session, and an election for the constitutional post of chairman Senate and deputy chairman Senate will be held amid opposition by the PTI due to an “incomplete house.”
The president has appointed Senator-elect Muhammad Ishaq Dar, who had won on a technocrat seat from Islamabad on April 2, as the presiding officer for the election of the chairman and deputy chairman.
Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) postponed elections on 11 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on April 2 after a petition filed by the opposition in the KP Assembly. In the house of 96 members, 85 senators will take oath with 11 vacant seats.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024