Upper House: PPP names Rabbani as parliamentary leader

ISLAMABAD:

It seems the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has once again started banking on its old guard as it decided to have Senator Mian Raza Rabbani as party’s parliamentary leader in the Senate, here on Tuesday.

The development came after the nomination of Senator Aitzaz Ahsan as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate on Monday. Ahsan has replaced Senator Ishaq Dar who had resigned after PML-N emerged as largest party in general elections.

Both Rabbani and Ahsan held no key posts during the last five years of PPP government.

Tuesday’s decision was taken at a meeting by the 39 senators of PPP who also discussed party’s strategy with regard to budget session.

Though PPP was routed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in elections, the party still enjoys majority in Senate with 39 members in a house of 104 members.

After the decision, Rabbani thanked his colleagues and asked them to ensure their attendance in senate proceedings, said a statement issued by the spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar.

The statement quoted Rabbani as asking his colleagues to “fully utilise the platform of the Senate for keeping a check on the government as well as refurbish the ideological bearings of the party.”

Rabbani also asked the PPP senators to ensure their attendance in the proceedings of the Senate and take full advantage of the dynamics of the floor of Parliament that offered many unexpected opportunities to vigilant Parliamentarians.

Absence of Senators had haunted the PPP when it was in power during last five years and the opposition members had walked out of the upper house several times in protest against absence of relevant ministers who were supposed to answer members’ questions.

During the meeting, PPP members discussed ways and means to play a robust and constructive role in the upper house of the Parliament.

It was decided to hold regular meetings of the Parliamentary Party ahead of and during each Senate session to thrash out the issues to be raised. The meeting also discussed how best to use the various Parliamentary instruments including question hour, motion, resolutions and call-attention notices for maximum effect and efficiency, the statement said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2013.