Senate deputy chairman Saleem Madviwalla on Saturday denied saying that efforts were under way to remove Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani from his office.

Madviwalla, at a press conference at his official residence on Friday, had referred to the recent meetings of former president Asif Ali Zardari with Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Mir Hasil Bizenjo and said a no-trust motion against the incumbent chairman of the Senate would be brought if opposition parties including the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, National Party and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) took a collective decision.

The Senate deputy chairman, however, distanced himself from those remarks today, claiming that the statement regarding efforts to remove Sanjrani was wrong.

"The statement regarding the [ouster] of Senate chairman is incorrect," he said in an official statement today. "I have not given any statement regarding the removal of Senate chairman."

Madviwalla said that the decision to remove the Senate chairman is to be taken by political parties, adding that the earlier statement associated with him "is based on a misunderstanding".