Staying put: Saeed Ghani to retain Senate seat

Three PPP leaders in race for top parliamentary party post

ISLAMABAD: Saeed Ghani, leader of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will continue to retain his position as senator, following his appointment as adviser to the Sindh chief minister.

On July 30, Ghani was named adviser to Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah on labour and human resources.

An active lawmaker, Ghani is known in the Senate for taking up issues of governance and policies.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Ghani said that he had prepared to step down from the Senate but the top leadership of the party talked him out of it.

“I met the party’s chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who asked me to stay on – a move also reinforced by the party’s co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari,” he said.

His decision comes after several party members made efforts to convince the leadership to not let him resign. One of the party’s legislators, Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, termed Ghani’s presence in the upper house of parliament ‘inevitable’ and ‘crucial’ for the party.



Ghani said he would not be able to manage two key positions simultaneously, adding that PPP was looking for members who could replace him as parliamentary leader.

In response to a question of who would replace him, he said Taj Haider, Sherry Rehman and Farhatullah Babar could be among the probable names for the slot.

According to another party official, Senator Rehman Malik is also vying for the slot and is in contact with the top leadership of the party. The PPP is likely to name a new leader in the coming days.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd,  2016.