ISLAMABAD, March 12: Farooq H. Naek, a close confidant of President Asif Ali Zardari, took oath on Thursday as the fifth chairman of Senate and only the second belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party.

Mr Naek was earlier declared elected unopposed by the presiding officer, MQM Senator Col (retd) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, after PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the only other candidate for the post, withdrew his papers.

Mr Naek’s nomination for the post, it may be mentioned, had irked many party loyalists, including the Leader of House, Mian Raza Rabbani, who announced that he was quitting the post from the cabinet.

Jan Muhammad Jamali was re-elected as deputy chairman, being the consensus candidate of all parliamentary groups.

Chaudhry Shujaat’s decision to withdraw his candidature followed a late Wednesday night meeting at the Prime Minister’s House, attended by the Chaudhrys, Prime Minister Gilani and representatives of PPP’s coalition partners. Senator Tariq Azeem, information secretary of the PML-Q, denied reports that the understanding reached at the meeting for the posts of Senate chairman had anything to do with the formation of a coalition government in Punjab.

Mr Jamali was greeted by the entire house, including senators belonging to the PML-N, Jamaat-i-Islami, BNP-A, Jamhoori Watan Party and PKMAP, when the newly elected chairman announced his unanimous election and invited him to take oath.

Habibullah Khan was the first PPP chairman of the upper house of parliament. He belonged to the NWFP. He held the post from Aug 6, 1973, to July 5, 1977. He was succeeded by Ghulam Ishaq Khan who was elected on March 2, 1985, when military ruler Gen Ziaul Haq revived the upper house, and held the post till 1988.

Mr Wasim Sajjad remained chairman of Senate for the longest period so far, from Dec 1988 to Oct 12, 1999. He was succeeded by the outgoing chairman Muhammedmian Soomro who was elected on March 12, 2003.

Earlier, when the special session of the upper house started, 50 newly elected Senators took oath. Senators belonging to the PML-N, PKMAP, JI and some other parliamentary groups boycotted the election in protest against what they called government’s strong arm tactics to foil long march.

The house saw some anxious moments when Jamaat-i-Islami’s Prof Ibrahim raised objection to Article 270 AAA included in the Constitution at the behest of Gen Pervez Musharraf. Leader of the House Mian Raza Rabbani assured the house that the oath of the newly elected chairman and deputy chairman would be strictly under the 1973 Constitution.

Some lawmakers raised objection when a paper containing the Article 270 AAA was released showing it a part of the Constitution.
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