A Senate panel on Wednesday witnessed a general consensus on not bringing a cut in the numerical strength of the Upper House of the Parliament after eight members from the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) retire - four on March 11, 2021 and another four on March 11, 2024 - upon completion of their respective tenures.
The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice met with Senator Javed Abbasi in the chair and deliberated upon the matter referred to the panel by Senate chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani that the current strength of Senate may continue and eight seats of the Senate from erstwhile Fata may be distributed among the four provinces equally increasing the number of general seats.
After taking input from the committee members and representatives from the legal fraternity, the chairman of the committee observed that there has been a considered view that the membership of the Senate should not be reduced to 96 from the current 104.
However, he stated that further deliberation will be made as to whether the number should remain the same 104 or to 100.
After the merger of the Fata with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the eight general seats of the tribal areas will have to forgo as four existing members are set to retire on March 11, 2021 and another four on March 11, 2024.
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) representative in the committee Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, however, stated that he would only be able to give the party's position after consulting party leadership.
He also suggested that opinion from heads of the political parties should be sought before a final decision with regard to the strength of the Senate.
The chairman of the committee was of the opinion that the number should be 100, adding that there were a number of draft bills before the committee seeking creation of more provinces, and if created representation would also be given to the new federating units in the future.
He also explicated on the history of how the seats in the Senate membership were increased and evolved over the time.
The committee chairman pointed out that when the Constitution was promulgated in 1973, Senate seats were at 45, and they were subsequently increased to 63 in 1977 to 87 in 1985 to 100 in 2002, to 104 in 2010 and after merger of the Fata with the KP it will reduced to 96 when the present membership completes its tenure.
Senator Walid Iqbal of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) endorsed the suggestion of keeping the Senate strength at 104, adding that the eight seats to be vacated by the senators from the former Fata should be equally distributed among the provinces.
Discussion was held on the matter from the perspective of giving more and equal voice to every region in the Senate, having more political participation and balancing the dominance of the Lower House.