PTI Senator Shibli Faraz was appointed the new opposition leader in the Senate on Monday.

Former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan had nominated Faraz for the position last week and he was widely seen to take the role with the endorsement of 21 senators.

According to a notification issued by the Senate Secretariat, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, Faraz was appointed under Rule 16 (3) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012.

A serving senator since 2015, Faraz served as information minister during the PTI government. He was also appointed as a focal person of the PTI earlier this month.

His appointment comes after the Senate was left dysfunctional for at least three weeks, as 52 lawmakers retired on the night of March 12.

Polls to fill the vacant seats took place on April 2 — where the ruling coalition swept 19 seats — and were followed by the unopposed election of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani as the Senate chairman.

The new chairman was elected in a session which also saw 41 newly elected senators being sworn in as members of the Upper House of Parliament amid a noisy protest by the PTI, which had boycotted the election as polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had not finished.