LAHORE: The chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate will be from the Pakistan People’s Party, said party’s Punjab chapter president Manzoor Wattoo at a press conference here on Friday.

He said the PPP had emerged as the single largest party in the Senate and with the support of ANP, MQM, PML-Q, JUI-F, Fata and independent senators it would be in a position to get its candidate elected for the two top slots of the upper house.

He criticised the promulgation of the Presidential Ordinance in the middle of the night that deprived Fata members of Senate elections. “It was an insult to the members and people of the Fata and they will never support the government as a reaction to the political drone attack.”

He held the government responsible for making the elections controversial. He recalled that the PPP had held Senate polls in 2012 and there was not a single case of horse trading because the senators were elected unopposed thanks to the consensus struck among all stakeholders by Zardari.

He thanked the PML-Q for supporting the PPP candidate in the election and also the PML-N members for casting their vote in favour of Nadeem Afzal Chan.

He promised to award tickets to PML-N dissidents if their party took disciplinary action against them for voting in favour of the PPP candidate. — Staff Reporter

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2015

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