Reacting to the decision of Senate Chairman Farooq H. Naek to appoint JUI-F Secretary General Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri as the new opposition leader hours before the start of the general debate on the federal budget for the next financial year, opposition members belonging to all other parties lodged a strong protest, disrupting the whole proceedings. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Aided by quiet manoeuvring, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F managed on Monday to grab the office of the opposition leader in the Senate, but at the cost of a divided opposition and a rumpus rarely seen in the upper house.

Reacting to the decision of Senate Chairman Farooq H. Naek to appoint JUI-F Secretary General Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri as the new opposition leader hours before the start of the general debate on the federal budget for the next financial year, opposition members belonging to all other parties lodged a strong protest, disrupting the whole proceedings.

The government also faced embarrassment when the members of its coalition partner, the Awami National Party, staged a walkout against the Pakistan People’s Party for allegedly registering fake cases against its workers in Karachi.Despite repeated demands by members, Mr Naek did not read out his decision of appointing Maulana Haideri as the opposition leader and said that he had done it through a “speaking order”. He, however, invited the protesting opposition members to his chamber to see “the one-and-a-half page decision”.

A group of 25 opposition senators belonging to the PML-N, PPP-Sherpao, Jamaat-i-Islami, the two splinter groups of the PML-Q, National Party and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party had submitted an application on May 14 to the Senate chairman nominating PML-N’s Ishaq Dar as a candidate for the office of opposition leader, which had been vacated by PML-Q’s Wasim Sajjad after his party joined the ruling coalition last month.

Later the JUI-F, which is the largest parliamentary group with 10 senators on the opposition benches, also submitted an application with the signatures of 11 members nominating Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri for the office.

Sources told Dawn that the JUI-F persuaded on Monday five independent senators from Fata sitting on treasury benches to join the opposition and later submitted another application with their signatures to the Senate chairman supporting Maulana Haideri. Moreover, the JUI-F members reminded the Senate chairman that constitutionally he could not count the PML-Q dissidents as opposition members.

Although Mr Naek did not read out his decision, it was obvious that he had not counted the PML-Q dissidents as members on the opposition benches.

It all started when Mr Naek gave floor to Maulana Haideri to open debate on the budget as per parliamentary tradition. The other opposition members stood up and started raising slogans and thumping desks. Amidst slogans like “no to fake opposition”, “no to fake speech”, “shame shame” and “we want justice”, Maulana Haideri continued his speech which, however, could not be heard in the galleries. Many senior parliamentarians like Raja Zafarul Haq, Prof Khurshid Ahmed, Salim Saifullah Khan and Abdul Rahim Mandokhel also continued desk-thumping throughout the speech of Maulana Haideri.

At the end of his speech, Maulana Haideri criticised the protesting opposition members and accused the PML-N of not playing the true role of an opposition in the National Assembly.

He alleged that the PML-N provided secret support to the government and the United States for launching a military operation in Swat. He said that he wanted to take all the opposition members with him to strengthen the opposition.

Later the Senate chairman allowed some opposition members to speak on points of order and all of them asked him to review his decision.

The PML-N’s Raja Zafarul Haq said it seemed that the Senate chairman had taken the decision “under pressure”.

Another PML-N senator, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, termed it “parliamentary terrorism”.

The Jamaat’s Prof Khurshid Ahmed said to the chairman that he had committed a big mistake and he would have to rectify it. He said there were 36 senators and out of them, 25 had nominated Mr Dar as the opposition leader.

Abdul Rahim Mandokhel of the PkMAP termed it “parliamentary rigging”.

Prof Sajid Mir of the PML-N asked the chairman to tell the house under which rule he had bypassed the principle of number game.

The President of the PML-Q dissident group, Salim Saifullah Khan, protested over the chairman’s decision to not count them as opposition members and declared that they would continue to sit on the opposition benches.

Later the chairman adjourned the house to meet at 10.30am on Tuesday.