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ISLAMABAD: After smooth conclusion of the Senate elections, President Asif Ali Zardari is now facing the tough challenge of selecting the deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament as two of his main coalition partners — the PML-Q and ANP — have laid claim to the coveted slot.
The election for the post of deputy chairman will be held after oath-taking of new members of the house on March 12.
When contacted, senior leaders of both PML-Q and ANP not only claimed their right to the post but also suggested names of possible candidates.
Since deputy chairman Jan Mohammad Jamali of the PML-Q, who is retiring from the Senate, belongs to Balochistan, the PML-Q and ANP believe that his successor should be from the same province and they have “most suitable candidate” for the office.
A PML-Q leader floated the name of Rubina Irfan while the ANP termed Daud Khan Achakzai the most appropriate candidate for the post.
They said that if the position was given to a person who did not belong to Balochistan the sense of deprivation among the already neglected people of the province would increase further because the president, the National Assembly speaker and the Senate chairman all belonged to Sindh, the prime minister to Punjab and the deputy speaker to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Being the second largest party of the coalition in the Senate, we deserve to get the office of the deputy chairman,” said ANP Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, whose party now has 12 senators.
Mr Bilour, who was due to retire on March 11 but retained his Senate seat in the Friday’s elections, said Daud Khan Achakzai was an old party activist and his party would try to get him nominated for the deputy chairman office.He, however, made it clear that so far the party had not formally finalised Mr Achakzai’s name since the Election Commission had withheld the results on seven general seats from Balochistan.
“If they are looking for a Baloch woman, we have Rubina Irfan, who has solid credentials,” said a senior PML-Q leader on condition of anonymity. “Moreover, Rubina Irfan is granddaughter of Nabi Bakhsh Zehri and has married to the son of Khan of Kalat,” he added.
A PPP leader, who is in complete picture of all developments, told Dawn that the party had so far not finalised candidates for the posts of chairman and deputy chairman. In all probabilities, Senate Chairman Farooq H. Naek was likely to retain his office.
He confirmed that the ANP and PML-Q had been vying for the post which, according to him, would go to a person from Balochistan if Mr Naek was again nominated for the office of the chairman.
Replying to a question, he said Mr Naek’s performance as Senate chairman was satisfactory and his “loyalty” with the party was unquestionable. He said since Mr Naek’s term would end in 2015, it would be difficult for him to sit as an ordinary member in the house that he had been presiding over for three years.
However, he said, there were “one or two” PPP senators who had been lobbying against Mr Naek.
The PPP leader did not rule out the possibility of nominating a woman from Balochistan as the deputy chairperson, saying that it would help improve the image of the province at international level.
He said President Zardari would start consultations with coalition partners and hopefully, like in the past, he would succeed in brining consensus candidates for the offices of chairman and deputy chairman.
Mr Zardari congratulated the new senators, saying election to the upper house of the parliament was yet another “triumph of democracy”.
In his felicitation message, he expressed the hope that the wisdom and maturity of the newly-elected senators would further strengthen democracy and parliament.
He congratulated the outgoing senators for the role they played in the restoration of the democratic constitutions and other legislative measures.
