Senate to elect new chairman, deputy today

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Senate is set to elect its chairman and deputy chairman today amid opposition’s claims of horse trading against the government ahead of the contest to be held through secret ballot after oath-taking of 48 newly-elected members of the Upper House of the Parliament.

The ruling Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) has nominated Sadiq Sanjrani, the incumbent Senate chairman, as their candidate for the Upper House’s top slot, while the opposition alliance – the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – has expressed support for former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani.

For the deputy chairman’s seat, the government has nominated Mirza Afridi, while Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri will contest the election from the opposition’s side.

According to the Senate Secretariat, the session would meet in the morning for oath-taking of the newly elected senators after which the session will be adjourned. After the adjournment of the session, nomination papers for the chairman and deputy chairman would be submitted. Later, the session would resume in the evening to elect the chairman and deputy chairman. Names of the candidates would be announced during the meeting and later a secret ballot will be held. The names of winning candidates for the slots of chairman and deputy chairman would be announced after which they will also take the oath.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a series of tweets on Thursday, said: “The recent Senate elections showed how we are losing our moral compass.” He said in the absence of justice and rule of law, a state could lead towards disintegration.

The Prime Minister said once moral authority was lost by the state, the deal-making (NRO) was resorted to the “powerful criminals”.

He mentioned a saying of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) as “Many nations before you were destroyed when there was one law for the powerful and another for the weak”.

The Prime Minister stressed that throughout the history, moral decay and corruption destroyed states because of their failure to deliver justice. He quoted several renowned personalities of their time who emphasised on morality in a society.

He shared a quote of British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke who in 1777 said: “All who have ever written on government are unanimous that among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist”.

He quoted British judge Patrick Devlin (1905-92) as saying that “an established morality is as necessary as good government to the welfare of society. Societies disintegrate from within more frequently than they are broken up by external pressures”.

The Prime Minister also mentioned a quote of American General Douglas McArthur (18880-1964) as “History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline”.

On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz claimed on Thursday that the party senators were being called and asked not to vote for the PDM’s candidate in the Senate chairman’s election. In a tweet on Thursday, she claimed some senators had recorded the evidence.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also claimed his party’s senators were being influenced to cast vote in favour of Sanjrani.

Another PML-N leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi later on Thursday alleged government institutions were “being used to interfere” in Senate elections. In a press conference, alongside former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal, party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, and Senator Hafiz Abdul Kareem, Abbasi said members of his party had been receiving phone calls urging them to change their votes during the election of the Senate’s chairperson and deputy chair. “Once again, an attempt is being made today to make the election of the Senate chairman controversial,” he said. “There’s still time to hold the Senate chairman election tomorrow in accordance with the Constitution.”

Senator Kareem, who was also present at the press conference, said he had received phone calls on March 6 and 7, wherein he was told to support the PTI government’s candidate.

However, PDM candidate Yousuf Raza Gilani, replying to a journalist’s query, said he had no information with regard to horse trading in the Senate chairman election.