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ISLAMABAD: After becoming the single largest opposition party with 14 senators, the PML-N looks set to get the office of the opposition leader in the upper house. This will also end its tussle with the JUI-F on the issue.
PML-N stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and now Ishaq Dar, the party’s parliamentary leader in the Senate, who has returned unopposed on a technocrat seat from Punjab, will get the office in the upper house.
“We have already sent a letter to the Senate secretariat informing it that Ishaq Dar will be our parliamentary leader when the new Senate will meet on March 12,” said PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid.
Talking to Dawn on Sunday, Mr Rashid said Mr Dar had previously been nominated by the party for the office and he would again be the party’s nominee for the post.
He regretted that Senate Chairman Farooq H. Naek had appointed JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri as the leader of opposition with a controversial decision that pitted the PML-N and the JUI-F against each other.
The chairman’s June 6 decision of appointing Maulana Haideri to replace PML-Q’s Wasim Sajjad marred the budget session after a 24-member group led by Senator Dar boycotted the budget debate and also the proceedings of the house standing committee on finance which prepared budget recommendations for submission to the National Assembly.
Soon after the office of the opposition leader fell vacant in May after the PML-Q’s decision to join the ruling coalition, both Maulana Haideri and Ishaq Dar staked their claims for the office.
The JUI-F, which was the largest opposition group with 10 senators, had submitted an application with the signatures of 11 members supporting Maulana Haideri whereas PML-N’s Ishaq Dar had submitted a similar application with the support of 24 senators belonging to the two splinter groups of the PML-Q, PML-N, PPP-Sherpao, Jamaat-i-Islami, National Party and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party.
The JUI-F, however, later managed to grab the office when they submitted a new application which carried signatures of five independents from Fata and two from Balochistan.
Moreover, the number of JUI-F leader’s supporters increased when the Senate chairman nullified the votes of nine PML-Q dissidents who had decided to sit on the opposition benches although the party had joined the PPP-led ruling coalition.
The boycott of a large number of opposition members forced the chairman to agree on a review of the decision, but only after listening to both sides.
But after a legal and technical debate, the chairman upheldhis previous decision. Members of the Dar group threatened to take the matter to the Supreme Court, but eventually dropped the idea.
Senator Pervaiz Rashid said the PML-N was all set to challenge the chairman’s ruling before the court but decided against it after the idea was opposed by some members of the group.
After the March 2 Senate elections, the JUI-F’s strength has fallen to seven from 10, whereas the PML-N has doubled its tally from seven to 14.
Since all the PML-Q dissidents and members of other smaller parties backing Mr Dar are retiring on March 11, the PML-N now faces no challenge from the seven-member JUI-F and one member National Party left on the opposition benches in the new Senate.
