ANP not in the run for Senate deputy chairman’s office

THE NEWS

The Awami National Party (ANP) isn’t in the run for the position of the Deputy Chairman of the Senate despite being the third biggest party in the Upper House of Parliament, following a decision by the PPP-led ruling coalition that an ethnic Baloch from Balochistan would be given this office.

When approached by The News, ANP’s President for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senator Afrasiab Khattak said his party wasn’t pursuing the Senate Deputy Chairman’s position. “Actually, there was a consensus among the allied parties that the Deputy Chairman should be a Baloch from Balochistan. We have accepted this decision and would support it,” he added.

Earlier, there was speculation that the ANP would seek the Deputy Chairman’s office on the basis of its strong representation in the Senate. In the March 2 election for 54 Senate seats in the country, the ANP won six in its stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Balochistan.

The ANP now has 12 members in the Senate, placing it in the third position behind the PPP with 41 Senators and the PML-N with 14.The ANP could have made a claim for the Deputy Chairman’s position if its lone Senator from Balochistan was a Baloch. However, the party’s newly-elected Senator Daud Khan Achakzai is a Pashtun and, therefore, cannot be fielded to contest for the Deputy Chairman’s job.

The outgoing Deputy Chairman of the Senate, Jan Mohammad Jamali, is a Baloch. This was the only major elected office held by the Baloch in the federation of Pakistan. The Baloch as well as Balochistan don’t have much representation in the corridors of power, though the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has Balochistan’s domicile. His family was settled in Balochistan like many others from Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who did well in business, secured many government jobs and made strides in other walks of life.

The decision by the PPP-headed ruling coalition to appoint a Baloch as Deputy Chairman of Senate was motivated by the desire not to reduce the Baloch representation in the existing government set-up. The move was seen as an attempt to check further alienation of the Baloch people. Though it won’t satisfy the Baloch nationalists, the election of a Baloch Senator as the Deputy Chairman of the Upper House of Parliament would at least deny them a chance to blame the powers that be of further disempowering the Baloch.

The PPP as the biggest political party in the ruling coalition could name one of its top leaders from Balochistan and newly elected Senator Sardar Fateh Mohammad Hasni as Deputy Chairman of the Senate. Mohammad Yousaf Baloch and Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi, the two other new PPP Senators elected on general seats, are also ethnic Baloch.

Other newly elected Baloch Senators are Mir Israrullah Zehri of the BNP-Awami, his party colleague Naseema Ihsan and Robina Irfan of the PML-Q. Both the BNP-Awami and PML-Q are allies of the PPP. There are also some Balochs among the old members of the Senate and they too could be considered for the post of Deputy Chairman.