LAHORE, March 11: The Pakistan People’s Party and Muslim League-Nawaz had an understanding on electing the senators unopposed in Punjab.

“Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had spoken to me about electing Senators unopposed and I agreed,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told journalists here on Sunday.

He said the PPP was the only party that had not gone for horse trading. Saying he was saddened by the defeat of PPP candidate Aslam Gill in the Senate election, he added a party committee was looking into different aspects of Mr Gill’s defeat.

Opposition Leader Raja Riaz said the PML-N leadership had also promised that it would not support an independent candidate (Mohsin Leghari) but it backed out.

The PML-N on the other hand had been denying having any Senate polls understanding with the PPP.

The prime minister further said conspiracies were hatched to stop the Senate elections.

“Some people also did not want the bye-elections,” he said, adding that on March 12 Senate chairman and his deputy would be elected and on March 17 for the first time in the country’s history, a democratically elected president would address a joint sitting of the parliament for the fifth time.

Meanwhile, the prime minister distributed cheques of Rs100,000 each among the families of 12 victims who died in Moon Market blast in 2009. Interior Minister Rehman Malik, PPP secretary general Jehangir Badr and Samina Khalid Ghurki were also present.