ISLAMABAD: Elections for chairpersons of three Senate standing committees were held on Thursday.

These committees included the Senate Standing Committee on Finance in which the Senate deputy chairman will be sitting as a member for the first time.

The elections for these three committees’ heads were held in the first phase because of the upcoming federal budget, whereas chairpersons for other three dozen Senate standing committees would be elected at a later stage.

An unusual development was seen in the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, for which Senator Farooq H. Naek of the Pakistan Peoples Party was elected chairman, as Saleem Mandviwala, Senate Deputy Chairman and the committee’s former chairman, would be its member.

It is for the first time that the Senate deputy chairman has decided to be a member of any standing committee.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Mandviwala said that the law did not bar the deputy chairman from becoming a member of any standing committee.

“There should not be any issue of ego — after all we all are senators and contributing to the better performance of the whole house is our responsibility,” he said.

Senator Agha Shahzeb Durrani of the PML-N has been elected chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reforms, while Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi has been re-elected as chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice.

Mr Abbasi’s name was proposed by Muhammad Asad Ali Khan Junejo, a newly elected Senator of the PML-N from Islamabad.

The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice comprises heavyweights of the upper house, including Leader of the House Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq, Leader of the Opposition Sherry Rehman, Mian Raza Rab­bani, Farooq Naek, Mussadiq Malik and an independent member from Balochistan, Sana Jamali.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2018