MQM-P, FATA announce alliance with Opposition's Sadiq Sanjrani

Nominee Raja Zafarul Haq says 'Fata senators will vote for government'

Senators from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and handful of senators from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Bahadurabad faction announced support for Opposition's Sadiq Sanjrani for the post of Senate chairman.

According to Express News, 52 senators took the oath today, and the election of the chairman and deputy chairman of the Upper House will take place at 4pm today.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Balochistan’s independent senators will back up nominee Sadiq Sanjrani for the post of Senate chairman, and Saleem Mandviwala for deputy chairman.



Today, Fata and MQM senators have said that they will also be voting for Sanjrani and Madviwala. They announced their alliance with the Opposition’s candidates. The majority party remains Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), but their position seems to weaken significantly.

Fata’s senator Hidayat Ullah spoke to the media, and said “all of our eight votes will be given to Sanjrani.” On the other hand, MQM’s senator Atiq Shaikh also said that “MQM will back PPP for the position of chairman.”

However, PML-N's chairman nominee Raja Zafarul Haq denied the claims and said, "Fata's senators will vote for the government, they will not vote for the opposition." The PML-N also appeared to be convinced that the MQM-P's second faction will vote for Haq as chairman.

Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui of the Bahadurabad faction said MQM-P's support for the Senate top position is only for the chairman. "We will not vote for PPP's Mandviwala for the position of deputy," Siddiqui added. "Not only will we support Sanjrani, we will support him throughout."

Siddiqui further added that the decision of nominating Sanjrani fulfills multiple purposes, "Our wish to see someone from the other provinces rise to the top has come true."