New senators take oath amidst slogans

By all means it was Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) day which emerged as the single largest party in the Upper House of parliament with 41 seats besides getting elected two of its members as chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate, respectively, as 54 senators-elect took oath as members of the House on Monday amidst sloganeering of ‘Jiyay Bhutto’ by excited party workers present in the lobbies.
Senator Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and Sabir Baloch were elected unopposed as chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate, respectively, as the opposition parties did not field its candidates for the slots.
No doubt the recent Senate elections due to which PPP emerged as the majority party in the House have infused a new spirit amongst the party leadership and its workers as was vivid in the House, but former law minister Babar Awan seemed to have lost respect amongst party ranks as he could not get a response from the excited party workers similar to other party senators when they signed the senators’ roll. There was hardly a party worker who chanted slogan on the turn of Awan.
The irony of the situation is that all the sloganeering was in violation of the Senate Rules and even the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Procedure Senator Tahir Mashhadi of the MQM was amongst the parliamentarians who shouted slogans in the House in favour of their respective party heads. He shouted “Jiye Altaf” as he signed the senators roll. Newly-elected Senators Saeed Ghani of the PPP and Shahi Syed of the ANP also chanted slogans in favour of their respective party leaders when they signed the senators roll.
The PPP workers continued chanting slogans in the House as “Zinda hai Bhutto Zinda hai”, “Ik Zardari sub pay Bhari” and “Jiyay Bhutto” for their victory, upon which PML-N Senator Zafar Ali Shah staged a walkout, saying the Senate was a constitutional institute that must be respected.
Interestingly, PPP Chief Whip Islamuddin Shaikh addressed the party workers present in the lobbies and allowed them clapping, which is also not allowed under the rules.
After the Senate elections, PPP has emerged as a majority party in the House with 41 seats followed by PML-N with 14, ANP with 12, JUI-F and MQM with seven each, PML-Q five, BNP-A four and National Party and PML-F with one each.
The remaining members are independent.
At a critical juncture when the power game is taking its course, parties like Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, PkMAP and Awami Muslim League lost the ground and will have no representation in the Upper House. On the other hand, PML-N has decided that Ishaq Dar would be the opposition leader. Later, members congratulated newly-elected members and the chairman and deputy chairman Senate. However, they were concerned over the Balochistan situation and called upon the government to do the needful before it was too late.