Majority of senators retiring next year belong to opposition parties

(Karachi) At least 65 percent senators belonging to different opposition parties will retire on March 11, 2021, after completing their six-year constitutional term, Dawn reported on Monday.

As per details, 52 members will retire from the Senate in March next year. Of them, 34 belong to the opposition parties and 18 from the treasury benches while the total strength of the Senate is 104.

Of all the opposition parties, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) seems to be losing the ground in terms of representation in the Senate as 57 per cent of its members are set to retire. The statistics reveal that out of 30 PML-N senators, 17 will retire in March next year.

Many bigwigs to leave

Prominent PML-N leaders who will retire include Leader of the Opposition Raja Zafarul Haq, Parliamentary Leader Mushahidullah Khan and former information minister Pervaiz Rasheed.

Similarly, the report stated that eight PPP members are also among the 52 senators who will complete their six-year term. Amongst those who will leave the Senate seats are Deputy Senate Chairman Saleem Mandviwala, parliamentary leader Sherry Rehman, former interior minister Rehman Malik and former law minister Farooq Naek.

In addition, two members belonging to the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), National Party (NP) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and one each from the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Awami National Party (ANP) will retire from the Senate. JI chief Sirajul Haq is among the retiring senators, the report highlighted.

Meanwhile, seven Senators from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) will also retire and most of them hail from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The most prominent among those retiring from the PTI are Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz, Mohsin Aziz and Nauman Wazir.

Likewise, PkMAP Senator Usman Kakar, JUI-F’s Maulana Ataur Rehman, JUI-F secretary general Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri are among the retiring senators. As far as the Awami National Party (ANP) is concerned, its only member Sitara Ayaz will also retire from the Senate seat.

The structure

The Senate comprises 104 members — 23 each from the four federating units, eight from Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and four from Islamabad. The 23 seats allocated to a province comprise 14 general seats, four reserved for women, four for technocrats and one for minority member.

A senator is elected for a term of six years, but half of them retire after every three years and elections are held for new senators. Elections to fill the seats allocated to each province are held in accordance with the “system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote”.

The upcoming Senate reduce to 100 in 2021 and then 96 after the subsequent election scheduled for 2024. This is because the eight Fata seats have been abolished (after the merger) but the incumbent FATA senators have been allowed to complete their terms.