Brainstorming session: PTI begins mulling over Senate elections

Party awaits Imran Khan’s return from Saudi Arabia

ISLAMABAD:

Even as the question of resignations of its members from the lower house of parliament remains unsettled, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has started brainstorming over the upcoming elections in the Senate where PTI has no representation.

On Monday, the party’s core committee held a preliminary session and deferred the decision on its participation in the Senate elections till the next meeting.

The next meeting will probably take place once Imran Khan returns from an Umrah trip to Saudi Arabia.

By the time, the party also expects to have a clear response from the government on the constitution of a judicial commission.

Appearing before the media after the meeting, Dr Shireen Mazari, PTI central information secretary, said: “A preliminary discussion was held on the participation of the next Senate elections and we will discuss this issue in detail in the next core committee meeting.”

Neither PTI nor Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), its coalition partner in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), have any representation in the 104-member upper house of parliament.

PTI lawmakers from the National Assembly and three provincial assemblies except K-P during their weeks-long protest campaign against the government had resigned.

Sources told The Express Tribune that some senior leaders, close to the chairman, were suggesting participating in the Senate elections.

Hitting hard at the government as she referred to shortage of petrol across the country, Shireen Mazari stated, “It reflects failure of the incumbent government.”

She said that the PTI would start a protest movement against this failure of the government which had been ruling with fake mandate, adding that “PTI demands immediate supply of fuel to the masses.”

Responding to a question, Dr Mazari confirmed that formal contact between Jehangir Tareen of PTI and Ishaq Dar of the ruling PML-N was expected late Monday evening.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2015.