ISLAMABAD: PPP stalwart Raza Rabbani and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of the JUI-F took oath as Senate’s chairman and deputy chairman, respectively, on Thursday.

Mr Rabbani, who was the consensus candidate of all parties, including the ruling PML-N, was elected unopposed whereas Maulana Haideri was elected with a majority vote, defeating PTI’s candidate Shibli Faraz.

They were administered the oath of office by senior PML-N leader Ishaq Dar, who had been nominated by the president to chair the first session of the new Senate.

PTI candidate for second-highest Senate slot bags nine more votes than expected

Earlier, Mr Dar also administered the oath to the 48 newly-elected senators.

Soon after taking oath as the seventh chairman of the Senate, Mr Rabbani nominated PML-N’s Ishaq Dar to preside over the remaining session and conduct the election of the deputy chairman and left the house, announcing that under the Constitution, he could not preside over the session as he had to take charge as acting president since President Mamnoon Hussain was abroad on an official visit.

Two ex-chairmen of the Senate — Wasim Sajjad and Nayyar Bokhari — witnessed the proceedings from the gallery whereas another former chairman, Farooq Naek, was among the new senators who took oath for a six-year term up to the year 2021.

Soon after Mr Rabbani was sworn in, PPP activists sitting in the galleries began raising familiar slogans such as “Jiye Bhutto” and “Zinda Hai Bibi Zinda Hai”.

Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, whose name was announced by opposition parties in the morning as their consensus candidate after hectic consultations, secured 74 votes, while Shibli Faraz of the PTI bagged 16 votes out of the total of 90 valid votes.

Announcing the results, Mr Dar said a total of 96 members, out of 100, had cast their votes, but six of them were rejected on technical grounds.

The PTI has only six senators and with the support of the lone Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) senator Mr Faraz was expected to bag only seven votes. Members were seen discussing the results and guessing who the nine senators from other parties were who had voted for the PTI candidate.

Later, felicitating Mr Haideri on his election, PPP’s Farhatullah Babar said the vote contained a “political message that needed to be heeded”.

The result, he said, showed that Mr Haideri had won with an overwhelming majority, but nine extra votes polled to the PTI candidate and six rejected votes could also be seen as “protest votes” by some members ignoring party lines.

The JUI-F, he said, needed to reflect whether the negative vote represented protest against the way some JUI-F leaders couched their worldview in a diction that did not go down well with women and the moderate and progressive elements.

After his unanimous and unopposed election as chairman, Mr Rabbani vowed to “strengthen democracy, guard the sovereignty of parliament and ensure supremacy of the Constitution.” He also sought the support of the National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in this regard, saying that “they both should together fight in case of any assault on the parliament”.

“Today, parliament is passing through turbulent waters. The constitution is passing through a phase where it needs to be guarded and protected,” he said, adding that he would protect the parliament’s sovereignty and traditions.

The members from across the board felicitated both Mr Rabbani and Mr Haideri and expressed the hope that they would strive for upholding the Constitution, supremacy of parliament and strengthening democracy and would raise their voice for the rights of the people of smaller provinces, particularly Balochistan.

PML-Q’s Mushahid Hussain Sayed said Mr Rabbani had become the first “leftist” to become the Senate chairman. After the election of Mr Haideri, the PML-Q senator said that election of a “leftist” as chairman and a “rightist” as the deputy chairman reflected the diversity in the house.

Mushahidullah Khan of the PML-N later in a lighter vein commented that Mr Rabbani was perhaps the only “leftist” left in the country as all of them had either moved to the US or joined the PML-N. He said the main supporter of trade unionism had become Senate chairman, which was good news for the labourers.

JI chief Sirajul Haq in his maiden speech after becoming senator commented that instead of talking about “left and right”, they should do the “politics of right and wrong”. He was of the view that the focus of the house should be on elimination of the menaces of poverty, unemployment, terrorism and loadshedding.

The members, particularly from Balochistan, said that Mr Rabbani was considered to be a symbol of federation, and he should play the role to end the sense of deprivation among the people of the province.

Jahanzeb Jamaldini of the BNP-Mengal said the people of Balochistan were not traitors and they were as patriotic as the people of other provinces. He said the people of a province should have the first right on their resources.

MQM’s Tahir Mashhadi regretted that the present government did not listen to the Senate and did not give importance to the upper house.

Usman Khan of the PkMAP called for giving more powers to the Senate. He said the members would have to struggle under the leadership of Raza Rabbani to get powers of moving vote of no-confidence against the prime minister and getting a role in the passage of the budget.

Nauman Wazir of the PTI also drew the attention of the house towards some alleged discriminatory acts of the federal government to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and expressed the hope that Mr Rabbani would help the people of KP get their due share in the royalty of gas and electricity.

Farhatullah Babar said Mr Rabbani commanded respect not only in the house but also outside the Parliament among the intelligentsia, the NGOs, the media and the civil society.

He said that during the past few years the parliament had come under pressure from some state institutions that tended to tread upon the domain of the parliament. A major reason of the systematic erosion of the parliament was the civil-military disconnect and the refusal of the security establishment to submit to parliamentary sovereignty.

“How the new chairman will steer the House to play a role in retrieving lost ground and ensuring its supremacy will be his ultimate test,” he said.

The senators also praised the PTI for participating in the democratic process through contesting the election for the office of the deputy chairman.

Earlier in the day, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was seen making hectic consultations with the leadership of all political parties for Maulana Haideri.

Besides Maulana Haideri and Hafiz Hamdullah of the JUI-F, Shibli Faraz and Jahanzeb Jamaldini of the BNP-M had also filed their nomination papers for the office of the deputy chairman.

BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal, the sources said, also met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and later withdrew his candidate.

The opposition parties had reached an agreement on the name of Maulana Haideri during a late-night meeting at Zardari House and later Farhatullah Babar declared that they had reached an agreement on the name of the deputy chairman, but it would be announced in the morning.

Sources in the opposition told Dawn that Mr Zardari had stopped the party from announcing the name of Mr Haideri as he wanted to do so after taking the ANP and other parties into confidence which were not present in the meeting at the time of the decision.

The sources said ANP president Asfandyar Wali was present in the meeting, but he had to go to attend a wedding. The leadership of the JUI-F, ANP, PML-Q and BNP-A had gathered at the Zardari House after failing to reach a consensus at a meeting held at the residence of PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as the PPP and the PML-N had left the issue of the selection of the deputy chairman candidate entirely to the parties having representation in the Balochistan Assembly.

The JUI-F emerged as the consensus contender for the office of the deputy chairman following the withdrawal of the ANP and the PML-Q from the race.

Sources in the PPP said that at one point, Maulana Fazlur Rehman suggested the name of Hafiz Hamdullah for the deputy chairman’s office, but he faced a strong resistance from the PPP and the PML-Q whose members said that they could not support Hamdullah for his controversial views on the floor of parliament about women.

The sources said that the PPP was in favour of PML-Q’s Rubina Irfan, but she was facing resistance from within her party as another party leader Saeed Mandokhel had also presented himself as a candidate. They said the PPP was also ready to support the National Party president Hasil Bizenjo, but he himself had refused to accept the offer.

After this situation, they said, the PPP had no option but to support the JUI-F candidate as Mr Zardari had already given the commitment that he would not interfere in the selection of the deputy chairman candidate.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play