To get presiding officer’s verdict nullified: PDM to adopt two-pronged strategy

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement would adopt a two-prong strategy to nullify the verdict of the presiding officer of the Senate chairman election, including challenging it in the superior courts.

According to the strategy, a constitutional petition will be submitted in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) tomorrow (Monday) and a strategy would be worked out to move a vote of no confidence against the newly-elected Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani during a ‘disputed count of votes’ by the presiding officer, who rejected seven votes cast for Yusuf Raza Gilani. Well-placed sources told The News here on Saturday that Senators Farooq Naek, Mian Raza Rabbani, Nayyar Bukhari and Latif Khosa will jointly draft the petition.

According to legal experts, it is an open and shut case where the rulings of the apex court have been flagrantly violated and the results changed to turn the victory of the PDM’s candidate into defeat.

Gilani had secured more votes than Sanjrani and that amounts to be mockery of justice, the sources said. They also referred to the summary moved by the federal ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for designating a presiding officer, who had been a staunch opponent of the PPP throughout his political career. The PPP candidate was willfully defeated by him, the sources charged. The ministry didn’t take the major groups contesting the polls into confidence before selecting the presiding officer. The prime minister referred the summary to the President who also didn’t apply his mind before notifying the appointment of the presiding officer.

The sources clarified that no misunderstanding exists among the PDM ranks regarding the voting and affixing stamp on the name of Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani since it was done in accordance with the instructions of the Senate secretary.

The sources said that the PDM leadership would also evolve a strategy for tabling a vote of no-trust against the chairman in its meeting on Tuesday (March 16) here at the central secretariat of the Pakistan Muslim League. The PPP will put up the proposals in this regard.