EDITORIAL: #Pakistan - Senate shock

The failure of a no-confidence move against the Senate chairman, Sadiq Sinjrani, is an utter embarrassment for the upper house of parliament. The public expects a high level of discussion, policy-making and vision from Senate members. Given public expectations, political parties from both the opposition and the treasury field highly qualified and committed people to the Senate. The backers of Mr Sanjrani, however, succeeded in securing 14 senators from the opposition benches who stabbed their leadership in the back. They either voted for the government party’s candidate or managed to stamp their ballots wrongly.

Treasury senators and ministers have called opposition senators’ defection an aspect of democratic rights of members. They say the reason for the defections was simply that Mr Sinjrani was better than the opposition’s candidate, Hasil Bazenjo, for the position. Had this been the issue, the senators would have raised their concerns in joint opposition meetings. On the contrary, in all meetings, they went along with the party line till the last moment and when it came to stamping the ballot paper, their conscience awoke and led them to the opposite camp.

By all means, the opposition was hopeful of winning the day because of its numerical strength. In the house of 104, it showed its power many times: it had 64 senators on its side. On the fateful day, 64 members from the opposition rose at their seats to approve the motion against Mr Sanjrani submitted by leader of the opposition, Raja Zafarul Haq, in the house. The results of secret balloting were otherwise. Of the absentees, one is Chaudhry Tanvir of the PML-N. He is accused of keeping 600,000 kanals in the names of his servants. His absence seems to be a deliberate act, and his party must take notice of it. The other absentees were Sirajul Haq and Mushtaq Ahmad of the Jamaat-i-Islami. Both had already announced their decision to abstain. The jubilant government must think about the harm they have done to democracy. Conceding the office of the senate chairman to the opposition would not have made much difference to its power.

No doubt the upset has triggered serious deliberation among opposition circles. They should expose the defectors and the elements responsible for the defections. PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has collected resignations from his party senators and said action would be taken against those who defied the party policy. The PML-N also should get rid of its absentee senator as well as those who went against its policy.