Senate resolution for poll delay denounced
The former Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday said that the resolution of the senate seeking deferment of the February 8 general election holds no weight because it was passed by just over a dozen of senators in a house also deficient of quorum.
Talking to the media in Aarazi and Bubak areas of Jamshoro district on Saturday Shah maintained that the senate session is never held after the Friday prayer.
However, not only the session was convened the other day but also a minority of senators backed the resolution in what arguably was an unlawful practice. "That meeting is shorn of legality," he emphasised.
The former chief minister contended that the world wanted to see a democratic Pakistan where an elected government fostered relations with the global community.
Shah recalled that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and President Dr Arif Alvi decided the election date after consultation. Subsequently, the Supreme Court also ordered that the elections should be held on February 8, he added.
He expressed his hopes that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will sweep polls across the country and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will be elected as the country's prime minister.
Read SC moved against Senate's election postponement resolution
Earlier on Friday, PPP Sindh president, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, said that the Senate Chairman, Sadiq Sanjrani, should be ashamed of holding a session which lacked quorum and for letting a resolution which desired postponement of the elections be passed from the upper house.
"Although, there is no significance of this resolution yet we condemn it." He said at least 25 members were supposed to be present in the house to fulfill the minimum requirement of the quorum. He questioned how the senate's chairman did not notice the insufficient number of the members.
Khuhro said Sanjrani himself will be gone from the senate after a month when his term expires.
"Around 250 to 260 million people living in Pakistan yearn for their right to vote," he asserted. Nisar said the country has been through the worst times when the menace of terrorism was far more threatening. He recalled that the elections took place even when the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was martyred on December 27, 2007.
Separately, Milli Yakjahti Council (MYC) President and Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) Sahibzada Abul Khair Muhammad Zubair has condemned the killing of Sunni Ulema Council leader Molana Masood-ur-Rehman Usmani in Islamabad.
He said the assassination seemed to be a part of the conspiracy aimed at postponement of the general elections. He also expressed his disapproval of the senate's resolution in this regard, reiterating that the quorum was incomplete.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2024.