ISLAMABAD: The sole agenda of 291st Senate session could not be taken up on Tuesday as Leader of the Opposition in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq refused to move a motion in the House under Rule 218 for discussion regarding removal of the chairman.
Speaking in the House, Haq said the opposition had submitted a no-confidence motion in the Senate Secretariat but it was placed for discussion under Rule 218. “Neither the motion can be discussed under the said rule nor the opposition will take part in it,” he said.
He said the Senate session had already been summoned on August 1 for taking up no-confidence motion against the chairman.
Earlier, the chairman announced the panel of presiding officers for the session which included Senators Sitra Ayaz, Ahmad Khan and Agha Shahzaib Durrani.
On Monday, President Dr Arif Alvi summoned the Senate session on August 1 for voting on the no-confidence resolutions against Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwala.
According to a notification issued by the Senate Secretariat, the president has called the session of the upper house of parliament “for taking up motions for leave to move resolutions for removal of (the) chairman and (the) deputy chairman Senate, in pursuance of the summary sent by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs”.
On July 9, opposition senators had submitted a resolution against Senate Chairman Sanjrani to the secretariat of the upper house with signatures of 38 opposition members. The government and coalition legislators hit back with a similar motion against the deputy chairman on July 12.
