Sanjrani summons Senate session on Tuesday

The session is being convened on the requisition of the opposition parties

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has summoned a session of the upper house of parliament on July 23 on the requisition of the opposition.

The session will convene next Tuesday at 3pm, according to a notification issued by the Senate secretariat.

On July 18, Sanjrani approved a notice for the “Motion for Removal of Chairman Senate” in terms of Rule 12 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012.

The Senate Secretariat has also circulated the notice among the members and written a letter to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for further necessary action at its end.

Opposition senators to mull no-trust motion strategy today

However, it is still not clear whether the no-confidence motion can be moved in a requisitioned session of the Senate. Sanjrani recently said that only discussions on public issues may be allowed in the session, drawing sharp criticism from opposition members.

On July 9, the opposition parties submitted a no-trust motion against the Senate chairman to the secretary of the upper house of the parliament to ramp up pressure on the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government.

The motion was submitted by Zafarul Haq, Sherry Rehman, PML-N leader Javed Abbasi and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam’s (JUI-F) Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri.

Bizenjo warns against delaying no-trust motion

In a tit-for-tat move, senators of the PTI and its allies also moved a no-confidence motion against Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla, who is from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

The motion, signed by 26 senators, was submitted in the Senate Secretariat.

In March last year, in a major blow to the then ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Sanjrani was elected the Senate chairman with the support of PTI, PPP and a bloc of independent lawmakers.