ISLAMABAD, April 9: The Senate Secretariat has been functioning without a chairman for the last 12 days as Mohammadmian Soomro is on a foreign visit and the office of the deputy chairman is lying vacant after appointment of Khalilur Rahman as the NWFP governor on March 15.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, opposition leader in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani claimed that it was for the first time in the country’s parliamentary history that a House had become headless.

Mr Rabbani said it was unfortunate that the Senate, which represented the federation, was today headless.

On the other hand, a senior official of the Senate Secretariat when contacted said it was not an unusual situation as the secretariat was functioning normally in the absence of the chairman and the deputy chairman. He said they were in contact with the chairman and taking approval of some important matters from him.

When asked to comment on the claim of Mr Rabbani that it was for the first time that the Senate was without a chairman, he said few months ago both the chairman and the deputy chairman were together out of the country.

However, he was unable to reply when asked whether such a situation was ever faced by the Senate Secretariat officials during the governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.

Meanwhile, Mr Rabbani in a statement said it was unfortunate that the government was perpetually violating the Constitution as the factual position today was that the Senate was without a chairman.

He said as Mr Soomro was out of the country on an official tour; therefore, in terms of clause (3) of Article 53 read with Article 61 of the Constitution, the chairman “is absent or unable to perform his functions due to any cause.” The said article, he said, also provided that “the deputy chairman shall assume the office of the chairman” in such circumstances.

The former deputy chairman, Khalilur Rehman, he said, had taken oath as the governor of the NWFP; as a consequence his seat in the Senate had become vacant in terms of clause (2) of Article 103 of the Constitution with effect from the date when he took the oath. As a consequence, he ceased to hold the office of the deputy chairman in terms of para (b) of clause (7) of Article 53 of the Constitution. Therefore, he said, a constitutional vacuum had been created with effect from March 28 when the Senate chairman had left on a foreign tour and continued till date.

Parliamentary Secretary of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Izhar Amrohvi, when contacted, said perhaps it would not be a serious matter for the government but such things did not happen in any democratic country. He said the government did not have any respect for the Constitution and quoted an example when Mr Soomro continued to preside over the session even after becoming the acting president of the country after departure of Gen Musharraf on a foreign tour.