-Senate chairman polls
-Will not support PDM candidate for senate chairman, Chaudhry Shujaat tells Bilawal
-After meeting Hamza, Bilawal expresses confidence PDM will win Senate chairman election
From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday failed get support from Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) for the forthcoming election of the Senate chairman.
A delegation of the PPP led by party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari met Chaudhry brothers at their residence in Lahore.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Monis Elahi and Hussain Elahi attended the meeting. Matters pertaining to political situation and forthcoming Senate chairman election came under discussion during the meeting.
Agencies added that the PPP chairman sought support of the PML-Q to which Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain while clearly stating the party position, said, “We respect our guests, however we are allies of the government and we also stand with them in the Senate.”
The PML-Q chief made it clear to Bilawal that it was not their policy to make a promise to anyone that was against their principles, adding that late prime minister Benazir Bhutto s son has come to our house for the first time and this will further strengthen the mutual relationship of respect.
He said that the PML-Q are the coalition partners of the government and the party has already assured the ruling PTI of its support for the forthcoming Senate chairman election.
Earlier in the day PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari expressed optimism that the candidate fielded by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for the Senate chairperson election will emerge victorious, saying the opposition parties will together challenge the PTI-led ruling coalition. He was speaking to reporters after calling on PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz at the latter’s Model Town residence in Lahore. During their meeting, the two exchanged views on the existing political situation, while Bilawal congratulated Hamza, the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, on the victory of PDM candidate Yousuf Raza Gilani in the March 3 Senate elections, according to the PPP.
Asked how the PDM would ensure its senators vote for the opposition candidate and not defect as had happened during the vote on a no-confidence motion moved by the opposition against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani in 2019, Bilawal said lessons had been learnt from the past. “We have learnt quite a bit from the last Senate chairman election; if we hadn’t, we would have lost the National Assembly secret ballot election,” he said, referring to Gilani’s victory on the coveted Senate seat from Islamabad. “We won there and it is our full effort that we challenge the government together so the win is of the PDM.”
After staging an upset in the Senate elections, the opposition parties have managed to retain their majority in the upper house of parliament and are now hopeful of getting the top offices of chairman and deputy chairman for which elections through secret balloting will be held on March 12.
