The joint opposition's Rahbar Committee Thursday finally nominated National Party's (NP) Hasil Khan Bizenjo as candidate for the slot of Senate chairman, two days after submitting a no-confidence resolution against Sadiq Sanjrani, the incumbent chairman Senate, in a bid to have him removed from the office.
Bizenjo's nomination followed a detailed meeting between the opposition parties that have representation in the Senate except Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) which does not support removal of the Senate chairman. Sources in opposition told Business Recorder that both major opposition parties - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) - were adamant to have their respective candidates elevated for the slot of the Senate chairman. After thorough consultations, both eventually agreed that the Senate chairman candidate would not be from these two parties and he would be from Balochistan. "The PML-N and PPP were locked in a tug-of-war over the nomination for the Senate chairman slot. The PML-N was of the view that it was well within its right to claim the candidature of the Senate chairman slot given that last three Senate chairmen including Sanjrani were all backed by the PPP. Under these circumstances, Bizenjo was an agreeable option," said a source in the PML-N.
Announcing Bizenjo's candidature for the Senate chairman slot, Rahbar Committee's convenor Akram Durrani said, "We have forged consensus over opposition's candidate for the position of the Senate chairman (in case no-confidence motion against Sanjrani proves successful). This is a commendable demonstration of political unity from opposition forces."
In a related development, Sadiq Sanjrani Thursday held a crucial meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan. Sources close to the Senate chairman told Business Recorder that the PM has assured Sanjrani of his full support to foil the no-confidence motion. During the meeting, the PM instructed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Swati and Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz to mobilise support in favour of Sanjrani. Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak was also present in the meeting, sources said.
Speaking to media earlier on Wednesday, Shibli had said that the government is working on a strategy to foil the opposition's no-confidence motion. This strategy, he said, would 'surprise' the opposition. Shibli said the opposition needed 53 members in the 104-member Senate to vote out Sanjrani. "I think this is impossible. There are serious divisions in the opposition and it is impossible for them to secure the desired number of votes against Sanjrani," the leader of the house in Senate said. He claimed that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is against the horse-trading. However, he did not disclose how the government plans to foil no-confidence motion.
Requesting anonymity, a PTI senator told Business Recorder that the PM has instructed the PTI senators to increase contacts with those PML-N lawmakers who are not happy over Bizenjo's candidature for the position of the Senate chairman.
"There are PML-N senators who were supporting the candidature of Chairman PML-N Raja Zafar-ul-Haq for the slot of the Senate chairman. The PML-N feels that it has once again been sidelined as far as nominating candidate for Senate chairmanship is concerned. We are eyeing the support of disgruntled elements in opposition," the source said.
Numerically, the opposition parties' strength is 65 seats (excluding two seats of JI which did not participate in APC and have not supported the decision to de-seat Sanjrani) in the Senate. The strength of PTI and its allies stands at 38 seats in the Senate. But given that voting on no confidence motion is held through secret ballot, the possibility of a senator changing his/her loyalty and vote against his party policy stands high.
Constitutionally, in case the opposition decides to bring a no-confidence motion against chairman Senate, it would require the support of at least one-fourth of total membership of Senate (26 out of 104) to have the motion passed. If the motion is passed, voting would be held to determine the will of the House - whether the senators want to retain the chairman or remove him from office. If majority vote (of the senators present at the time of voting) is cast in favour of the chairman, he retains his seat. If majority vote goes against him, he stands removed from the office.
Earlier on Tuesday, for the first time ever in the legislative history of Pakistan, the opposition senators, except from JI, submitted a no-confidence resolution for the removal of the Senate chairman.
The resolution contained the signatures of only 26 opposition senators, the one-fourth of 104-member Senate, which is the minimum number required to bring a no-confidence motion for the removal of Sanjrani.
The opposition also moved a related requisition to convene the session of the Upper House of the Parliament for the introduction of no-confidence motion against Sanjrani.
In the light of relevant constitutional provisions, the Senate session has to be convened within 14 days of the submission of no-confidence resolution. Given that the no-confidence resolution was submitted on July 9, the relevant Senate session needs to be convened latest by July 23.
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