Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah has said that there is a question mark on the Senate elections held on Thursday. While speaking to media persons outside the Parliament, he said that for the first time in the history of Pakistan, the polling process in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained suspended for three hours. "This shows that a party does not have trust in its members," he added.
He criticised Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government for promulgating an ordinance late night just some hours before the Senate elections for Fata members. He said that if the government wanted to issue ordinance, it should have promulgated it six or three months ago or even prior to announcement of the election schedule. He said that the act of the government to issue ordinance in the dark of night was regretful. "The government promulgated the ordinance due to its lack of trust in Fata MNAs," he added.
He also criticised the absence of the Prime Minister, saying that Senate election was a historic event, but the Prime Minister was not present in the country. He said that the Prime Minister was part of the parliament and should have been present in the House.
Khursheed said that if the Senate election in Fata was postponed then the coming session of the Senate on March 12 would also be postponed.
"If the government wants to run the Parliament this way then it will lose the people's trust," he observed. He said that the government wanted to introduce legislation, but we made it clear that the political parties had their own procedure and they should control their members to stop horse-trading in the election.