PPP’s Senate meeting requisition ‘falls short’

Secretariat explains Taj Haider’s requisition lacks sufficient signatures

ISLAMABAD:

Following another setback for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in their attempt to convene a Senate meeting addressing concerns about rising inflation and inflated electricity bills, the Senate secretariat clarified on Monday that the requisition did not meet the constitutional requirements.

In a statement, the secretariat pointed out that the requisition presented by Senator Taj Haider lacked the required number of members, rendering the meeting unable to proceed until these constitutional prerequisites were fulfilled.

The response underlined the incomplete number of members in Senator Taj Haider's requisition, leading to the inability to convene the Senate meeting. The chairman is now waiting for these constitutional requirements to be met before calling the upper house meeting.

Previously, five members, excluding those from the PPP, had withdrawn their signatures from the September 18 requisition. With these signatures withdrawn, the total number of signatories decreased from 28 to 23, falling short of the one-fourth membership needed to requisition the session.

In response to the withdrawal of signatures, Senator Taj Haider penned a letter to the Senate secretary, expressing his surprise and requesting the names of the members who had retracted their support.

The letter stated, "On our part, we had confirmed from all signatories before obtaining their signatures and submitting the same to the Senate Secretariat that they shall not withdraw their signatures at a later stage. The information given to me by Honourable Chairman Senate that five of the signatories had withdrawn their signatures is a shocking surprise for me and my party. Please be so kind as to send me their names."