In a first, a woman to lead opposition in Senate

PPP makes history

ISLAMABAD : With the support of 34 members from opposition benches, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Shahrbano Rehman, commonly known as Sherry Rehman, has become the first woman in the history of Pakistan to assume the office of the leader of the opposition in the Senate.

-@VicePresPPPP Senator @sherryrehman becomes Pakistan’s first woman Leader of the Opposition in Senate 🇵🇰 #PPPMakeHistory #PPPEmpowersWomen

— SherryRehman’sTeam (@SRehmanOffice) March 22, 2018

The development makes Rehman the first woman in the nation's history to hold the post. Rehman's office confirmed the news in a tweet.

She follows in the footsteps of slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, who was the first woman to serve as leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. This has also given the PPP the distinction of nominating the first woman prime minister, the first women leaders of the opposition, and the first female speaker of the National Assembly.

Born in Karachi on December 21, 1960, journalist-turned-politician Sherry came to parliament as an MNA in 2002 and then in 2008 on women’s reserved seats. During the PPP’s 2008-13 stint in power, she served as minister for health and information. She was later appointed the ambassador to the United States.

Along with her notification, the Senate Secretariat has also notified seat allocations for independent members of Senate. Of the total 31 independents, only 17 have opted to sit on the treasury benches.

PHOTO: IRFANGHAURI



“I would like to thank Chairman PPP Bilawal, co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and party peers on this occasion. Congratulations to everyone! I would also like to thank the Fata group, the Awami National Party (ANP) and others who pledged support. The PPP wants everyone to work in unison to ensure the Senate continues to deliver,”  Rehman shared in a video message.

Among these are 15 senators who were originally the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates for March 3 elections, but elected as independents due to party ticket issue after the Supreme Court disqualified former PM Nawaz Sharif from heading any political party.

Besides these 15, only two independents from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) – Senators Mirza Muhammad Afridi and Shamim Afridi – applied to the Senate chairman to allocate them seats on treasury benches.

The other 11 senators – six from Fata and five from Balochistan – have opted to sit on the opposition benches. In the new composition, the opposition has a thin majority of one member in the 104-member upper house.

Of these 52 members, 20 belong to the PPP, 12 to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), 11 independents, five to Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), two to Jamaat-e-Islami, and one each to the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M).

An independent from Balochistan, Sadiq Sanjrani was elected as the Senate chairman on March 12 with the support of the opposition parties. The Senate chairman can only vote to break a tie. Another independent – former finance minister Ishaq Dar – has not yet taken the oath.

 

 

PTI vows to form separate opposition group

 

 

In the new allocation of seats on the treasury and opposition benches, though the opposition outnumbers the treasury, it is divided into two groups, one led by the PPP and the other by PTI.

Imran Khan’s PTI claims that it had supported the PPP’s Salim Mandviwala for the office of Senate deputy chairman after the latter assured that they would back the PTI man for the leader of the opposition.

Since the top leadership of the two parties do not have any formal direct channels of contact, this assurance, if there was any, would have been from the second or third tier leadership of the PPP.

The PTI fielded Azam Swati for the slot of the leader of the opposition. He only had the support of 19 members. Besides the 12 PTI senators, five MQM and two JI members supported Swati’s bid.

In his reaction after Sherry’s appointment, Swati vowed that the parties supporting his nomination would have a separate group on opposition benches.

“The PPP has damaged the cause of the opposition by not supporting us. We will constitute our separate group in opposition,” PTI media office quoted Swati saying in a statement.

 

Six FATA members form their own group

 

Six members from Fata who opted to sit on the opposition benches have decided to form their own group. They have nominated Senator Aurangzeb Khan as their leader in the Senate. The Senate Secretariat issued a separate notification for this.

 

33 members to remain independent

 

The Senate website shows 33 members as independents, which constitutes the biggest 'affiliation' in the house.

Though most of them have opted to join either treasury or opposition benches, their legal status will still remain that of independents since there is no provision in the Constitution allowing independent sitting senators to change parties.

 

Constitutional provisions related to the matter

 

The Constitution does have provisions for members of the national and provincial assemblies to join parties if elected as independents. There is no such provision for senators.

In case of a member elected to the National Assembly as

an independent, Article 51 (e) provides a provision that such a member can join a party within three days of their name being published in the official gazette as the winner.

A similar provision is given in 106 of the Constitution for provisional assembly member. In case they do not do so within the specified timeframe, such members would be treated as independents.

For members elected as independents in the Senate, there is no such provision in the Constitution. This means even they apply to the chairman to allocate them seats with a particular party in the house, they will still remain independents as per law.

This implies that all those elected as independents will continue to enjoy legal cover against defection, even if they join political parties that supported their election to the upper house of parliament.

 

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari took to Twitter earlier to express hope that the party vice president would make history by becoming the first-ever woman to lead the opposition in Senate.

#PPP ready to make history again. We nominate Senator @sherryrehman for the position of Leader of Opposition. InshAllah she will be the first woman to lead the opposition in the senate. Pakistan People’s Party; #WeMakeHistory

— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) March 14, 2018

Senator Sherry Rehman elected and notified as leader of opposition of Senate of pakistan

— Saleem Mandviwalla (@SaleemMandvi) March 22, 2018

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had challenged the nomination of the PPP candidate, terming it a violation of the defined rules.