Senate election: PML-N, opposition sharpen knives

Opposition fields Sadiq Sanjrani, ruling party to unveil name at eleventh hour

ISLAMABAD: As the Senate meets today to elect its new chairman and deputy, Sadiq Sanjrani emerged on Sunday as the consensus candidate of the opposition for top slot of the upper house of parliament.

The ruling camp on the other hand seemed to be playing its cards close to its chest, as it has yet to announce a candidate for the coveted post.

However, it is likely that the PML-N would announce the name of Hasil Bizenjo as its candidate for the chairmanship, it is learnt.



Sanjrani, independent senator-elect from Balochistan, has the support of two mainstream opposition parties – the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan People's Party.

The opposition parties also agreed to support the PPP’s Saleem Mandviwala for the position of Senate deputy chairman.

Extensive huddles continued in the PML-N camp. Party supremo Nawaz Sharif first chaired party meetings in Lahore on Sunday. He then flew to Islamabad where he discussed the nominations for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman with senior party leaders and allies.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also attended the meetings that took place at the residence of Chaudhry Munir Hidayatullah.

Sources said the names of Raja Zafarul Haq and Hasil Bizenjo remained under consideration and a consensus was likely to be reached on Bizenjo's nomination as candidate for the Senate chairman.



The likely decision aims at countering the opposition's candidate from Balochistan. Bizenjo's name is expected to be announced prior to the Senate election today.

“The narrative — that Balochistan is a deprived province which should be given the top-level representation in the Senate, especially against the backdrop of the Senate chairman never having been elected from the province is too powerful a phenomenon to be ignored. No political party is in a position to oppose it,” said a PML-N cabinet member from Balochistan, requesting anonymity.

In this context, the PML-N has considered supporting National Party’s chief Hasil Bizenjo as candidate for the upper house’s chairman. Bizenjo is presently a federal minister. The NP is in alliance with the PML-N at the centre and in Balochistan.

“In case the PML-N supports any candidate from Balochistan, it would most likely be from outside the N-League in view of the defections from the N-League senators during the recent Senate elections. If we are not going to have chairman elected from our party, we would push for having our deputy chairman elected,” said a senior PML-N leader dealing with the party politics in Balochistan.

In such a scenario, he said, the situation would get complex since the N-League and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl have decided to join hands in the Senate elections after the N-League reportedly assured the JUI-F of supporting Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s candidate for the deputy chairman’s slot

Sources said deliberations are on for the election of Senate deputy chairman either from the PML-N or the JUI-F.

The JUI-F wants elevation of Talha Mahmood as deputy chairman while the PML-N's candidates for the slot also included Zafarul Haq.

However, it remained unclear till the filing of this report who was finalised for the slot. Some PML-N leaders claimed the outgoing Senate deputy chairman Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was running again for the same post, but sources said the nominations for the Senate's chairman and deputy chairman from the same province (Balochistan) were unlikely.

When asked by the media, a smiling Hasil Bizenjo did not confirm or deny that he was tipped to run for the Senate chairman. The decision would be announced on Monday, he said.

"You can judge from (my) smile what the decision could possibly be," he told reporters outside Chaudhry Munir's residence after attending the meeting.

Late in the night, some sections of the electronic media quoted PML-N's Ahsan Iqbal as saying that the Senate chairman candidate would 'hopefully' be from the PML-N without sharing further details.

Earlier, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while announcing nominations of Sanjrani and Mandviwala as ‘opposition’s joint candidates’ claimed the opposition had managed to secure the required support to get their nominees elected.

Sanjrani is an independent senator-elect from Balochistan, while Mandviwala was elected to the upper house in March 2015.

The consensus reached following back-to-back meetings of Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo with the leaderships of the PTI and the PPP.

On March 8, PTI chief Imran Khan had astonished many by announcing his party’s 13 senators’ support and vote to the Balochistan chief minister, saying it was time to get elected a senator from the most deprived province of Pakistan to one of the highest constitutional positions in the country – the Senate chairman.

Khan had given a free hand to CM Bizenjo to hold negotiations with other opposition parties, including the PPP.



In return, a couple of days ago the PTI chief announced that his party would support anyone, including a PPP nominee, for the slot of the deputy chairman.

Initially, the Balochistan chief minister had suggested the names of two senators-elect from Balochistan -- Anwarul Haq Kakar and Sadiq Sanjrani -- to the PTI for the slot of the Senate chairman.

On Sunday, all the sides agreed on the name of Sanjrani. While, the PPP forwarded the name of Senator Saleem Mandviwala for the position of deputy chairman, which was also approved by the rest of the opposition alliance factions.

A trio of the PPP, PTI and independent senators from Balochistan has a total strength of 39 votes (20 senators of the PPP, 13 of the PTI, and six independent senators from Balochistan.

While the alliance will be requiring a total of 53 votes to get its nominees elected during the elections scheduled to be held on Monday (today).

A senior PTI leader claimed that the Balochistan chief minister and PPP leadership were in close contact with the MQM-P, the JI, and independent senators from Fata in a bid to woo their support for the joint opposition’s candidates.

The MQM-P has five senators, JI has two, while Fata has seven (as one of the independent FATA senator has already announced his support for the PTI).