Ali Zafar elected chairman of Senate body on law, justice

ISLAMABAD: Senator Ali Zafar has been elected as the new chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Wednesday.

Zafar was elected to the post of the committee's chairperson unanimously.

The law and justice committee is arguably the most important one in the upper house and is responsible for all laws enacted in the Parliament.

The elections of the chairmen and chairpersons of various standing committees of the Senate were held a day earlier at the Parliament House.

The process was delayed due to differences of opinion between the treasury and the opposition benches.

The Senate elections were held in early March this year but election of the House standing committees are facing delays, mainly due to differences with regard to who should be the chairperson or chairman and from which party.

Differences between the government and the opposition are quite natural but the same among opposition parties is not a common phenomenon.

The two leading opposition parties — the PPP and the PMLN — fielded their own candidates for the slot of the leader of the opposition.

Ultimately, PPP’s Yusaf Raza Gilani was notified as opposition leader.

Meanwhile, PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman has been unanimously elected chairperson of Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Senator Sadia Abbassi and Senator Palwasha Khan proposed the name of the Senator Sherry Rehman as chairperson of Foreign Affairs Committee and she was elected chairperson of Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Talking to The News after getting elected, Sherry said she was grateful to her party leadership at being nominated to chair this important committee and also appreciate the fact that all senators elected her unanimously as chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate of Pakistan. “I look forward to working with all the members as we seek to better articulate Pakistan’s global challenges and also hope to make policy formation inclusive and holistic,” she added.

She said in all the great games being played in the region, as well as the growing violence in Afghanistan, Pakistan will have to navigate serious minefields to protect itself from the fallout. “We must anticipate such challenges and plan ahead for surviving a tough neighbourhood without becoming collateral damage while protecting our people with compassion and foresight for the economic hardship we face at the bottom of the pyramid,” she added.

Newly-elected chairperson Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee said Pakistan’s foreign service is one of the best in the region, and we should seek to leverage their resource and experience to maximum effect in order to transition to a country with high stakes in peace, regional connectivity and geo-economic priorities. “We will look to face existential disputes like Kashmir and Palestine with full strength of our support and use parliament to amplify transparency and unity in policy agendas,” she said. Senator Sherry Rehman had also served Pakistan’s ambassador to US during the PPP government.

Meanwhile, The newly-constituted Senate’s Defence Committee in its first meeting Wednesday unanimously elected Senator Mushahid Hussain as chairman of the committee.

After being elected chairman of Senate Committee on Defence, Senator Mushahid Hussain said his committee will act above party lines in the national interest for promoting civil-military harmony and will be acting as a bridge between parliament and the armed forces.

Five political parties participated in the electoral process including the Leader of the House, Senator Dr Shahzad Wasim and Leader of the Opposition, Senator Yousaf Raza Gilani. Senator Hidayatullah proposed the name of Senator Mushahid Hussain for chairman which was seconded by Senator Mushahid Ahmad.

After his unanimous election, Senator Mushahid Hussain thanked the Senate chairman, Parliamentary Leader of the PML-N, Senator Azam Tarar, the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition for reposing confidence in him and also thanked all the members present for their support.

He said the spirit of consensus which was witnessed in the unanimous election, would be maintained and the Senate Committee on Defence and National Security, which would function above party lines, as the issues of defence and national security should have a national bi-partisan support.

He said the role of the Defence Committee is not only to preserve, promote and protect the interests of Pakistan, but he also underlined the Defence Committee’s role to defend the inalienable rights of the oppressed people of occupied Kashmir, occupied Palestine and the Rohingya.

In his address to the Defence Committee, Mushahid Hussain said the national security would be redefined to include human security with a particular focus on new non-traditional challenges and threats to national security such as pandemics, climate change, health, population planning, education, food security and water scarcity so that socio-economic development and human security can underpin Pakistan’s national security and defence in a strong and robust manner.

He also appreciated the role of Senate Secretariat particularly the Senate Secretary Qasim Samad Khan for smooth election. Members present during the meeting included senators Talha Mahmood, Engr Rukhsana Zuberi, Mushtaq Ahmad and Hidayatullah, as well as both the Leader of the House Dr Shehzad Waseem and Leader of the Opposition Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Senator Faisal Javed elected as the chairman Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting.

Senator Talha Mahmood as the chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs.

PTI Senators Mohsin Aziz and Zeeshan Khanzada elected as chairman of the Standing Committee on Interior and as the chairman of the Standing Committee on Commerce respectively.

Balochistan Awami Party Senator Prince Ahmed Omer Ahmedzai has been elected as the chairman of the Standing Committee on Communications, Senator Rubina Khalid of PPP has been elected as the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Maritime Affairs, Senator Muhammad Tahir Bizinjo of the National Party got elected as chairman of the Standing Committee on Rules of Procedures and Privileges and independent Senator Hidayat Ullah has been elected as the chairman of the Standing Committee on Aviation, under Rule 184 (1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012.