A meeting of coalition parties at the Presidency late Saturday night endorsed the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) move to retain the top slots of the Senate – a house in which the ruling party now has an imposing presence.
A statement by presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar confirmed that the meeting backed the PPP’s move to appoint the incumbent Leader of the House Senator Nayyer Hussain Bokhari as the next Senate chairman, and Senator Sabir Baloch from Balochistan as the replacement of outgoing Senator Jan Muhammad Jamali as deputy chairman.
The official retirement of half of the Senate will take place today (March 11), following which the PPP will hold 41 of the 104 seats in the upper house of Parliament. The election of the offices of chairman and deputy chairman will be held on Monday (March 12), said the statement.
In Saturday night’s meeting, wherein the decision was confirmed, President Asif Ali Zardari urged the coalition partners to support the PPP nominees, said the statement. It added that all the allied parties attending the meeting endorsed the suggestion of the president and said that they would support the PPP nominees for these slots. The allied parties leaders also expressed the hope that both Senators Bokhari and Baloch would be elected unopposed, said the statement.
President Zardari, a few days ago, had reportedly refused to comply with demands of his allied partners for the slots. The outgoing Senate chairman, Farooq H Naek, is likely to be appointed as minister for law.
Besides the president and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the meeting was attended by Senator Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Senator Afrasiab Khattak, Senator Babar Khan Ghauri, Senator Tahir Mashhadi, Senator Mir Israrullah Zehri, Munir Khan Orakzai and Engr Shaukat Ullah.
The meeting also took stock of the latest political situation including the president’s forthcoming address of Parliament.
On Friday, President Zardari had summoned both houses of Parliament for March 17, primarily for his speech in which the president usually lays guidelines for the government’s economic and diplomatic policies.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 11th, 2012.
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No more blackmail from the tiny parties. This would help form stable govt and reduce corruption and threats.