QUETTA: The demand for allocation of the top office of the Senate to Balochistan is gaining momentum as after independent senators-elect the National Party (NP) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) are also demanding that chairman or deputy chairmanship should be from the province.

In March 3 Senate elections, six independent senators were elected with the support of the Pakistan Muslim League’s dissident group and their allies while the NP-PkMAP alliance managed to win two seats, one each for the two parties.

Now the leadership of the NP and PkMAP has decided to field joint candidates for the offices of chairman and deputy chairman of Senate.

After winning two seats each in the last week’s Senate elections, the combined number of senators of the two parties has reached 10, five each from each party.

The nationalist parties are said to have finalised joint candidates for offices of chairman, deputy chairman

Sources said that the leaders of the two parties, during a recent meeting, had decided to demand from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz that either chairman or deputy chairmanship of the Senate should be from the alliance of the NP and PkMAP, which are already allied with the PML-N at the federal level.

It was decided in the meeting that the demand would be presented to the central leadership of the PML-N.

The leadership of the two nationalist parties has made a plan to meet deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif in this regard.

Sources close to the leadership of the NP and the PkMAP claimed that in the meeting they had finalised joint candidates for the top slots of the upper house and their names would be announced after a meeting with the PML-N leadership.

Earlier, the independently senators-elect belonging to the PML dissident group had raised the demand for allocation of top office of the Senate to Balochistan and said that their doors were open for negotiation on the issue with parties having representation in the upper house.

The Pakistan Peoples’ Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have already approached the independent group of the senators-elect and formally invited them to join the parties.

Mushahid Hussain Sayed, the senator-elect from Islamabad and a leader of the PML-N, has talked to senator-elect Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar and congratulated him and his group on their success in the Senate elections.

However, Mr Kakar said that the independent group had made no decision to join or support any party during the election of Senate chairman and his deputy scheduled for March 12.

He rejected the allegations of the use of money during the Senate elections levelled by some TV anchors and said: “These allegations are wrong and rubbish.”

Senator-elect Ahmed Khan Khilji said that leaders of different political parties were meeting independent senators-elect just to congratulate them.

He said PTI leader Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind had met him and congratulated him on his success in the Senate election.

“The independent senators-elect and the MPAs who had voted the group in the election will make a decision (regarding the election of Senate chairman and deputy chairman) with consultation and consensus,” Mr Khilji said.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2018