PTI isolated in its boycott of Senate chairman polls

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has failed to convince any of the parliamentary groups in the house, which previously stood by it, to stay away from the Senate chairman election taking place on Tuesday (today).

Well-placed parliamentary sources told The News Monday evening that the PTI would agitate the question of election of the chairman and deputy chairman in the absence of half of the members from KP where the election of the members was not conducted by the Election Commission.

The PTI’s core committee Monday decided to boycott the election. The party is opting for the boycott for the first time in any parliamentary exercise since February 29 this year when the inaugural session of the National Assembly was held and it took part in every contest and incidentally it lost all.

The sources pointed out that the PPP leader Yusuf Raza Gilani would be elected unopposed as the Senate chairman.

The PTI, numerically on third position in the Senate, if opts to contest, will lose the election, as it has only one-member party of PkMAP that only once voted for it.

The PTI defeat is a foregone conclusion in case it contests the poll, the sources said.

Meanwhile, in a strange move, the PTI’s disgruntled Senator Saifullah Khan Niazi submitted an application to the Senate Secretary Samad Qasim requesting for stalling the election on account of absence of a complete house. Samad, however, did heed the PTI senator’s application.

Senator Saifullah quit the PTI in the wake of May 9 mayhem. The move to approach the Senate secretary was a juvenile one since the PTI instead of knocking the doors of the ECP approached a government official for relief.

Later the PTI approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for a stay against the election but the court declined to oblige.

Sources revealed that the PML-Q lone Senator Kamil Ali Agha had announced to follow the party’s discipline. He told The News that his party chief Ch Shujaat Hussain had ordered him to support Gilani.

Earlier, the Chaudhary had asked him to vote for Asif Ali Zardari and he obeyed his orders.

The JUI-F wouldn’t boycott the house proceedings of and would come out about its position today, the sources added. The PTI was expecting the JUI to side with it in the exercise.