Senate opposition leader: PTI says Swati has JI's backing

Party must also woo independents from PPP camp to have any chance

ISLAMABAD: Days after voting in favour of the government’s candidates for the top Senate offices, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Thursday 'assured' its support to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate for opposition leader in the upper house.

“PTI thanks JI chief Sirajul Haq, who announced his party’s support for Azam Swati for the opposition leader in Senate,” said a statement issued by party’s central media wing following a meeting between the leadership of both parties in Islamabad on Thursday.

However, Haq while talking to The Express Tribune did not confirm in clear words this support and restricted himself to saying, “One should rely on the statement given by Swati. I will announce JI’s position in this regard on Friday (today)."

Even if PTI’s claim is taken at face value, it only has the support of 19 senators, 14 less than the number backing the nomination of the PPP candidate for the slot, Senator Sherry Rehman.

A PTI senator who is privy to the developments claimed some independent senators from FATA and Baluchistan, who signed Rehman’s nomination before PTI had announced it would field a candidate, are now willing to withdraw their support for Rehman.

He said PTI was in contact with independent senators who would play an important role in the selection of the opposition leader in Senate. He claimed that in the next week, some of the senators who "unknowingly" signed Sherry’s nomination would withdraw the same and back PTI’s candidate.



March 22 (today) is the final day for independent senators to declare in writing their decision to Chairman Senate if they want to join treasury or the opposition benches.

According to Senate rules, the chairman is bound to declare name of the Leader of the Opposition within 15 days of the election of the chairman and deputy chairman. The chairman took his oath of office on March 12.

The chairman must declare a member having the support of a majority of members in opposition as Leader of the Opposition. A majority is established via signatures of opposition senators in favour of contesting candidates.

PTI’s nominee for the position, Senator Swati, recently told The Express Tribune that independent senators from Baluchistan had assured their support for PTI’s candidate in return for PTI’s support for recently-elected Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.

A couple of days ago, Swati had also written a letter to the Senate chairman drawing his attention to alleged violations of Senate rules in the nomination of Rehman.

Quoting the rules, Swati had claimed that submission of her nomination by PPP was a violation of rules and procedure and lacked any legal cover. Swati was of the opinion that PPP submitted the nomination before the defined procedure had even begun.