ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: The senators belonging to opposition Democratic Alliance have expressed their dissatisfaction over the one-year performance of the Senate , and criticized the chairman for delaying nomination of the leader of the opposition.

These observations were made by the opposition senators at a meeting of the parliamentary leaders of the Democratic Alliance held in the chamber of the opposition leader to review the functioning of the Senate here on Thursday.

The meeting was presided over by People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) parliamentary leader Mian Raza Rabbani and was attended by senators Ishaq Dar of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Asfandyar Wali of the Awami National Party, Amanullah Kanrani of the Jamhoori Watan Party, Sanaullah Baloch of the Balochistan National Party and Raza Mohammad Raza of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party.

According to a handout issued by the PPP Media Centre, the participants of the meeting expressed their concern over the delay in the appointment of the opposition leader despite the fact that 22 members of the Democratic Alliance had already informed the Senate chairman in writing with signatures that they supported Mr Rabbani's candidature for the office of the opposition leader.

They claimed that the Democratic Alliance was the largest opposition group in the upper house but the chairman had failed to issue a notification naming the nominee of the alliance as the opposition leader.

The opposition senators also expressed their concern that standing committees had not been constituted despite the fact that the Senate would be completing its one year of existence on March 12.

"The committees are the essence of a parliamentary system and act as a watchdog on the performance of various divisions of the government," they said.

The senators were of the view that the failure of the government in having the said committees elected reflected its non-serious and casual attitude towards the functioning of parliament, and that parliament in the eyes of the government was nothing more than a debating club.

They said keeping in mind the tradition of the Senate, the opposition members should be given their due share of the chairmanships of the standing committees commensurate with their total strength in the house.

The opposition senators regretted that two important constitutional issues were raised on the floor of the house by the Democratic Alliance but the government did not pay any heed to it.

The issue of Senate chairman presiding the 8th session of the Senate after assuming the office of the acting president and the "invalid" order proroguing the 9th session of the Senate, signed by Gen Musharraf while he was on a foreign visit, were serious violations of the Constitution, they said.

The failure of the Senate Secretariat to clear these issues in accordance with the Constitution cast a dark shadow on the validity of the proceedings of the upper house.

The meeting condemned the denial of permission to PONM leaders for holding a seminar at the Parliament Lodges. They also condemned the government for registration of cases against the PONM leaders and members of the Supreme Court Bar Association.