PPP takes over Senate

The Pakistan People’s Party emerged as the majority party in the Upper House of parliament on Monday after the oath-taking of newly elected senators.

The ruling party has now 41 seats in the Senate, followed by PML-N with 14 seats and ANP with 12 seats. The JUI-F and MQM have seven seats each, PML-Q five, BNP-A four and National Party and PML-F have one member each. The rest are independents in the House of 104 members. As many as 54 senators-elect took oath as members of the Senate on Monday at a special sitting chaired by Presiding Officer Senator Afrasiab Khattak.

The House also elected Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari as chairman and Sabir Baloch as deputy chairman. Khattak, who had been nominated by President Asif Ali Zardari, administered oath to the newly elected members. Both the chairman and deputy chairman were elected unopposed as the opposition members had extended support to the PPP nominees for the slots.

As the new senators took oath, the elected senators began shouting slogans. The members ignored calls from the Senate secretary and presiding officer to remain calm. PML-N’s Senator Zafar Ali Shah pointed out that such type of political shouting was against the decorum of the House, and later staged a walkout when no action was taken by the presiding officer. Khattak later administered oath to the newly elected chairman, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, who then took seat and conducted the election for the deputy chairman and administered him the oath.

Those who took oath from Punjab include: PML-N’s M Hamza, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Zafarullah Khan and Rafiq Rajwana; PPP’s Zaheerud Din Babar Awan, PML-Q’s Kamil Ali Agha and independent candidate Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari. Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Ishaq Dar and Khalida Perveen of PPP-P and Nuzhat Sadiq of PML-N took oath on seats reserved for ulema, technocrats and women, respectively. Kamran Michael of the PML-N was elected on minority seat.

From Sindh, PPP-P’s Saeed Gani, Raza Rabbani, Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamra and Karim Khawaja, MQM’s Syed Mustafa Kamal and Tahir Mashadi, PML-F’s Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah took oath on general seats. Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh of PPP-P and Barrister Farogh Naseem of MQM have been elected against seats reserved for ulema and technocrats. PPP-P’s Mudassar Sehar Kamran and MQM’s Nasreen Jalil took oath on seats reserved for women. Hari Ram Kishori Lal has been elected on a seat reserved for minorities.

From Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ANP’s Shahi Syed, Baz Muhammad Khan and Azam Hoti, PPP-P’s Haji Saifullah Khan Bangash and Ahmad Hassan, JUI-F’s Muhammad Talha Mahmood and PML-N’s Nisar Muhammad took oath. They were elected on general seats. Rubina Khalid of PPP-P and Zahida Khan of ANP took oath on seats reserved for women, while ANP’s Ilyas Ahmed Bilour and PPP-P’s Farhatullah Babar were sworn in on seats reserved for ulema and technocrats. ANP’s Amar Jeet has been elected on minorities’ seat.

From Balochistan, ANP’s Advocate Muhammad Daud Khan Achekzai, PPP-P’s Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani, Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi and Muhammad Yousaf Baloch, PML-Q’s Saeedul Hassan Mandokhel, JUI-F’s Hafiz Hamdullah and BNP-A’s Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri took oath on general seats. BNP-A’s Naseema Ehsan and PML-Q’s Robina Irfan and Mufti Abdul Sattar of JUI-F and Rozi Khan Kakar of PPPP took oath on seats reserved for women, ulema and technocrats, respectively. Minority senator-elect from Balochistan is Heman Dass of JUI-F. For FATA, Hidayatullah, Malik Najamul Hassan, Saleh Shah and Hilalur Rehman took oath. From the federal capital, Mushahid Hussain Sayed of PML-Q and Osman Saifullah took oath.