Sadiq Sanjrani, Balochistan’s independent senator backed by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and allies, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), has defeated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Raja Zafarul Haq for the chairmanship of the upper house of parliament.
The slot of the deputy chairmanship still needs to be decided between PPP’s Saleem Mandviwalla and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) as the voting is underway. Last night, the PPP and its allies had decided to pitch Sanjrani against the PML-N backed candidate for the much sought after Senate chairman seat.Sanjrani who was favoured by independent senators elected from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and other parties bagged 57 votes as against Zafarul Haq’s 43 votes, who was supported by PkMAP and National Party (NP), PML-Functional and Awami National Party (ANP). Earlier in the day, the 103 senators, excluding Ishaq Dar, met at the Parliament House to take oaths and elect the chairman and deputy chairman of the upper house, respectively.The polling day will start with a meeting convened by President Mamnoon Hussain at 10 am that will be presided by Sardar Yaqub Nasir— the designated presiding officer. Following the scrutiny of the papers, elections will be held through a secret ballot; subsequently, the outgoing Senate chairman, Raza Rabbani, will administer an oath from the newly elected chairman and invite him to take over the chair. Following this, the new chairman will conduct the election for deputy chairman.