-Those who betray PDM will pay ‘high price’: PML-N on Gilani’s nomination
-30 Senators recommend Gilani for the slot
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
Islamabad: PPP’s Yousuf Raza Gilani was declared as leader of the opposition in the upper house of parliament on Friday, according to a notification issued by the Senate Secretariat.
Gilani, a former prime minister, had recently been elected to the Senate after a highly contentious poll, in which he defeated the ruling PTI’s candidate, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.
He had subsequently contested the election for the Senate chairman’s post as a candidate of the 10-party opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), which he lost to the PTI-backed Sanjrani after seven of his votes were rejected by the presiding officer.
The opposition had immediately challenged the result of the election but were overruled by the presiding officer who said the votes had been rejected because they were not stamped correctly.
Later, the Islamabad High Court also threw out a petition by Gilani that challenged results of the Senate chairman election, noting that proceedings of the upper house of parliament were “immune from the interference” of the high court.
Earlier on Friday, Gilani, along with Senator Sherry Rehman, had reached the Parliament House and met Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, to whom the nomination papers were submitted.
Rehman said that the application had been filed with signatures from a total of 30 senators – 21 from the PPP, two from the Awami National Party, one from the Jamaat-i-Islami, two from members belonging to Fata and four from the independent group of Dilawar Khan.
Senators Hidayatullah Khan, Hilal-ur-Rehman, Mushtaq Ahmed and Nawabzada Arbab Umar Farooq as some of the names who had signed the agreement.
Rehman rubbished claims that the nomination signified the “funeral” of the PDM, adding that “this is the right of the PPP, we have 21 members.”
PML-N showed off anger:
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said on Friday that whoever betrayed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would pay an unimaginable price and that any political party wanting to see its politics flourish must not back away from the PDM’s objectives.
Iqbal was addressing a press conference at Jati Umra, flanked by other PML-N leaders and personalities, after the news of the submission of Yousuf Raza Gilani’s nomination papers for the leader of the opposition in the Senate surfaced.
“Whoever betrays PDM’s objectives, he will pay a price so high he might not even have imagined,” he warned. “So any party that wants to see its politics successful, it cannot think of backing away from PDM’s objectives.”
He had also said on Twitter that Gilani was worthy of respect but it was expected from him to take the PDM into confidence “without whose votes he could never have been elected as a senator instead of taking a unilateral step”.
“Instead, he found the senators of the BAP (Balochistan Awami Party) to be more trustworthy.”
Iqbal criticised the PPP’s decision to go ahead with Gilani’s nomination and called upon its senators to honour the PDM’s decision to support the PML-N candidate Azam Nazeer Tarar as the opposition leader.
“If this office of the leader of the opposition was so necessary for the PPP, I think if they had mentioned their need to [PML-N supremo] Nawaz Sharif sahab, he would have happily given them this position,” said Iqbal, lamenting that the move without taking the PDM into confidence was not “appropriate and it has affected the opposition’s unity”.
“The specific senators whose support was used to get the numbers, the whole of Islamabad knows whose instructions they vote on.
“These type of suspect transactions are not appropriate for the transparent politics of the PDM.”
He also criticised the Awami National Party (ANP) for extending its support to the PPP when a decision had already been taken by the PDM’s member parties.
“We are very saddened that ANP unilaterally took a decision against the PDM decision so we will raise these questions in PDM’s next session.”
PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah said that the matter would be taken up in a meeting of the leaders of the PDM’s constituent member parties and “whatever decision is taken there will decide the future of the PDM”.
“PDM is the centre of the hopes of Pakistan’s 220 million people,” said Iqbal, adding that the people wanted this “game of musical chairs” to come to an end and for the country to be run in accordance with the Constitution.
“The PDM’s objectives will not be disturbed by a party moving forward or back. PML-N will keep playing this role through PDM and its own platform.”
Iqbal, at the end. expressed the hope that “the PPP will consider that everyone’s unity is in the struggle we are doing from PDM.”
Iqbal had, earlier in the day, also pointed out that the PPP had taken the application to the same person whom they had challenged in the court for the Senate chairman. “Doesn’t seem appropriate.”
Iqbal’s press conference was the latest among a series of salvos from the opposition benches over an issue that has created disagreements between the PML-N and the PPP.
The PML-N maintains that the decision that the opposition leader in the Senate would be from the PML-N had been taken by a PDM committee and it had nothing to do with the outcome of the elections of Senate chairman and deputy chairman.
