Senate top slots: If denied opposition leader slot, PML-N will hit back

Sources say govt may ask Fata senators to support JUI-F’s Haideri against PML-N’s Dar.

LAHORE:

Senators from the opposition Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) have decided that their party would field candidates for the offices of Senate chairman and his deputy, if the government attempted to deny it the slot of opposition leader in the upper house of Parliament.

The Senate will elect its chairman and his deputy on March 12 (today). The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and its allies have nominated Senators Nayyer Bokhari and Sabir Ali Baloch for the two offices, respectively. And they are planning unopposed election of the pair.

Currently, the PML-N is the second largest party in the Senate with 14 lawmakers – however the PPP may suggest to its allies to retain the incumbent leader of the opposition, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri, who belongs to the JUI-F which is considered as a friendly opposition compared to the PML-N.

“The JUI-F has seven lawmakers in the Senate – but the government may win the support of 12 independent senators for Haidri against PML-N’s Ishaq Dar,” sources told The Express Tribune. Of the 12 independents, only one Senator – Mohsin Leghari – will support Dar. The rest, who hail from Fata, would follow the government’s dictates.

“If the opposition – the PML-N and JUI-F – fail to resolve the issue of who should be the next opposition leader, then the government would ask the 12 Fata senators to support Haidri,” a well-placed source told The Express Tribune.

For such a scenario, the PML-N has chalked out a strategy. The party would not allow the government nominees for the slots of chairman and deputy chairman – Nayyar Bukhari and Sabir Ali Baloch – smooth-sailing and would instead field its own candidates.  But the final decision to this effect would be made at Monday’s meeting of opposition parties.

“We have convened a meeting of opposition senators at 9am in the Senate where we will discuss all matters,” Senator Dar told The Express Tribune.

“If the opposition senators decide against running for the offices of chairman and deputy chairman, we will not field candidates,” he added. “But if the opposition decides to contest, then the PML-N would field its candidates.”

Asked about a new leader of the opposition, Senator Dar said that being the second largest party in the Senate, the PML-N deserved the slot.

Nomination papers for the slot of chairman and his deputy will be submitted on Monday (today) in the Senate Secretariat and the election for the two offices would be held afterwards.

Sources say that if the PPP government tried to deprive the PML-N of the opposition leader slot by asking the Fata legislators to support Haidri, it would be proverbial “hunting with the hound and running with the hare”.

Senator Mohsin Leghari opposed unopposed election of chairman and his deputy. While speaking to The Express Tribune he said that he would suggest the PML-N to contest the election and field its candidates for the two top offices.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2012.