The Upper House of parliament will meet today (Monday) to elect the chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate and swear in newly-elected members as senator. The session will have nothing on the agenda except the oath-taking of members-elect and election of the Senate chairman and deputy chairman. The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that secured majority in the Senate in the recently-held polls has nominated Senator Nayyar Hussain Bokhari as the chairman and Sabir Baloch as the deputy chairman. The coalition partners of the PPP have also endorsed the nominations of Bokhari and Baloch for the top two slots in the House. The ruling PPP with the support of its allies have two-thirds majority in the House, which provided it ground to get its nominees elected on the two positions.
Of the total strength of the 104-member Senate, PPP leads with 41 senators followed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz with 14 members. The third largest party in the Senate is the Awami National Party with 12 members, while the MQM and JUI-F have seven seats each. The PML-Q has five senators and BNP-Awami has four senators, while the PML-Functional and National Party have one each. There are 12 independent senators in the House, mostly from FATA.
Though the ruling coalition has nominated the candidates for the election of chairman and deputy chairman, the opposition parties have not come up with any announcement for their candidates for these slots. However, the opposition would take a final decision in this regard in the parliamentary party meeting before the start of the session. Presiding officer Afrasiab Khattak of the ANP will head the proceedings of the House until the election of the Senate chairman.
