ISLAMABAD: The upper house of parliament will finally be meeting this week for the first time since the caretaker set-up took up the reins of power, to discuss the situation in Gaza.

The announcement came three days after the PPP, with support from PTI, JI, JUI-F, and some other parties, submitted a requisition carrying 44 signatures to summon the Senate session.

Despite the significance of the Palestine issue, the Senate secretariat, however, chose to make a controversial announcement on Monday regarding the session.

The secretariat did not mention the requisition which was the basis of the Senate chairman’s decision to convene the house, rather highlighting two letters, which otherwise carry no legal weightage, written by PML-N and BAP senators.

“Chairman Senate of Pakistan, Mohammad Sadiq Sanjrani, has de­­cided to convene a session of the Senate during this week to address the pressing issue of the ongoing Palestine situation, following the barbaric bombings by the Zionist Is­­ra­­eli Army in Besieged Gaza Strip,” the Senate secretariat announced.

Prominent among the parties which did not sign the requisition included PML-N, BAP, ANP and MQM. While making the announcement, the Senate secretariat mentioned the letters written to the Sen­ate chairman by Leader of the House Ishaq Dar and BAP parliamentary leader Manzoor Kakar, urging him to convene a session of the upper house of parliament to discuss and deliberate on the Palestine situation.

A PPP lawmaker, when contacted, chided Senator Dar for writing to the Senate chairman, pointing out that he could not convene a session in the absence of a requisition. “If he was so serious about a Senate session, he should have written to the prime minister for an advice to the president to summon the house.” He said the letter was nothing but a ‘face-saving exercise’.

The last session of Senate was held on August 9. While two attempts were made by the PPP to convene a Senate session in September, both were blocked through controversial rejection of the requisitions.

Former Senate deputy chairman Saleem Mandviwalla exp­r­e­­ssed surprise over the mention of letters written by Mr Dar and Mr Kakar instead of the formal requisition. Talking to Dawn, he said none of them had signed the requisition. He also explained that the chairman could not summon the session on the basis of such letters.

Regretting the ‘misleading’ statement issued by the Senate secretariat, the former custodian of the upper house said the chairman could only summon a session on the basis of a requisition, which would be the case with the upcoming session requisitioned by 44 senators. The only other way was the government calling a session, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2023