ISLAMABAD: Following a shock defeat in the Chairman Senate elections, the top leadership of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Saturday teleconferenced to review the election and agreed to investigate all Opposition senators suspected to be ‘close’ to elected Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.
The three leaders spoke over the telephone to discuss the PDM’s loss in the elections for Senate chairman and deputy chairman despite holding superior numbers (51 senators compared to opposition’s 47).
Three leaders have agreed to find out the reasons behind their loss in the elections.
“In chairman Senate elections, seven votes were rejected [then] how did the government candidate get all the seven votes in the election of deputy chairman?” Fazlur Rehman reportedly asked Zardari and Nawaz during the conversation.
They also discussed preparations for the PDM’s upcoming long march and the alliance’s future.
During the conversation, the PDM chief, Fazlur Rehman, also reportedly told the leaders of the two largest opposition parties that there was “no point” in holding a long march without the Opposition resigning en masse from the assemblies.
The PDM on Saturday also announced an emergency all-party conference on Monday to review the Senate debacle. All parties have been directed to send their leaders to the conference.
The leaders will discuss the prevailing political situation and present a report on behalf of their party regarding the defeat.
They will also take the senior leadership into confidence on why 7 votes were rejected in polling for the Senate chairman position.
They will also address the concerns raised by the JUI-F over the defeat of its candidate for the deputy chairman slot.
Modalities for the March 26 long march will also be given a final shape in the meeting.
The hotly-contested Senate chairman and deputy chairman elections concluded Friday evening, with government-backed candidates Sadiq Sanjrani and Mirza Mohammad Afridi emerging as victors in the secret polls.
In the race for chairman, Sanjrani defeated Opposition candidate Yousaf Raza Gillani with 48 votes, while Gillani received 42 votes. A controversy arose over 7 votes that were deemed rejected as the stamp had been placed on Gillani’s name instead of in the blank space in front of it. The Opposition argued that the votes should be deemed valid, but the government candidates objected. The presiding officer eventually ruled that the votes would not be considered.
Senator Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, who served as the presiding officer of the chairman’s election, administered the chairman’s oath to Sanjrani.
In the subsequent election for Senate deputy chairman, government candidate Afridi won the election with 54 votes, defeating the Opposition’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, who managed only 44 votes. The government candidate managed to receive 7 more votes than the government alliance’s combined strength in the Senate (47). No votes were rejected in this round of voting.
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