President summons Senate session tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the Senate session on April 9 (Tuesday) for the oath of newly-elected senators and for the election of Senate chairman and deputy chairman.

According to an announcement of President House on late Sunday night, “In exercise of the powers conferred by Clause (1) of Article 54 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the Senate to meet in the Parliament House, Islamabad on Tuesday, the 9th April 2024 at 09:00 am.”

In the Senate session, newly-elected senators will take oath and election for the constitutional post of chairman Senate and deputy chairman Senate will be held.

The presiding officer nominated by the prime minister will administer oath to the newly-elected senators. Besides the newly-elected senators who were elected on April 2, senators elected in the by-elections of Senate on vacant seats will also be administered oath.

In the house of 96 members, 85 senators will take oath. The elections on 11 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were postponed by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The Senate elections were held last week except in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the Election Commission of Pakistan postponed the Senate polls as the provincial Assembly was not completed because of non-administration of oath to members elected on the reserved seats.

The PPP has nominated former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani for the post of chairman Senate while PMLN has not nominated anyone for the post of deputy chairman Senate. The PMLN wants to bring a woman on the post.

It is expected that the PMLN would announce its nominee for the deputy chairman Senate today (Monday).

The main opposition party, PTI, has not nominated its candidate for the post of chairman Senate to challenge the joint candidate of the ruling coalition.

As per the political agreement between the ruling coalition of PPP and PMLN, the post of president, chairman Senate and posts of governors of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were given to PPP while posts of deputy chairman Senate, speaker National Assembly and governors of Sindh and Balochistan were given to PMLN. The PPP’s nominee for the post of chairman Senate Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has the support of 24 PPP senators, 19 of PMLN, 4 of BAP, 3 senators of ANP, 3 independents and 1 of National Party that turns into 54. If 3 senators of MQM-Pakistan and 5 senators of JUIF also support Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, then tally of votes will be 62, which suggests that the ruling coalition nominee will be in a comfortable position to be elected. The opposition PTI has support of 20 senators, one each from BNP and PMLQ that turns into 22. If the JUIF chooses to sit with the opposition, then it would have a strength of 27 members.