Daily Times

Amid a very thin margin in the numerical strength of senators belonging to the ruling coalition and the combined opposition, the Upper House of Parliament is all set to elect its new chairman and deputy chairman in a nail-biting contest today.

Forty-eight newly elected senators will take oath of their office in Senate today and then election will be held for the slots of chairman and deputy chairman of the Upper House. Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, the joint candidate of the opposition parties, and Sadiq Sanjrani of the ruling coalition are in the race for the seat of chairman, while for the deputy chairman’s slot, the contest is between Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of the PDM and Mirza Muhammad Afridi of the ruling coalition.

Given the current political scenario in the country where the ruling and opposition parties are going an extra mile to inflict a major blow to the opponent, the contest for the top slot has assumed greater importance, especially when combined opposition enjoys a razor-thin majority in Senate.

Given the existing strength of senators following March 3 Senate elections, the opposition has 53 members. On the other hand, the PTI-led ruling alliance has 47 members in the Upper House of 100 members.

The numerical strength of the opposition parties goes down to 52 as the PML-N’s Ishaq Dar has not taken oath of his office since his election in March 2018. He will not be casting his vote as he is living abroad in self-exile.

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has one member in the Upper House but it has announced not to support any candidate in today’s election. A JI spokesperson on Thursday confirmed the party will not take part in the voting process. The JI’s lawmakers had also abstained from voting in March 3 Senate elections. This brings opposition’s votes further down to 51.

Further worrying for the opposition is that the PML-N’s Senator Dilawar Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who was elected in 2018, is not happy with the party and may cast his vote in favour of Sanjrani. This takes the equation to 50 versus 48. Hence, it will be a matter of one swing vote for Sanjrani to get equal and another one to secure the top position.

Both Sanjrani and Gilani have a history of pulling off upsets. Most recently, it was Yousaf Raza Gilani who surprisingly won the Senate elections from a National Assembly where the ruling alliance has the most numbers. Back in 2019, it was Sanjrani who had succeeded to defeat a no-confidence motion despite the fact that the opposition parties had the most numbers.

Agencies add:

The government and the opposition candidates on Thursday obtained nomination papers from the Senate Secretariat for the elections of chairman and deputy chairman.

According to officials, Leader of the House in Senate Dr Shahzad Waseem received the nomination papers on behalf of Sadiq Sanjrani and Mirza Muhammad Afridi. Senator Sherry Rehman received the papers on behalf of Yousaf Raza Gillani, while Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, who would be contesting for the slot of deputy chairman, obtained the papers on his own.

Earlier in the day, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz informed in a tweet that Prime Minister Imran Khan has nominated Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi for the post of deputy chairman Senate, giving representation to erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

According to the Senate Secretariat, the session would start in the morning for oath-taking of the newly elected senators after which the session will be adjourned. After the adjournment of the session, nomination papers for the chairman and deputy chairman would be submitted. Later, the session would resume in the evening the same day to elect the chairman and deputy chairman. Names of the candidates would be announced during the session and later a secret ballot will be held. After announcement of the winners, new chairman and deputy chairman will take the oath.