PPP to petition IHC over vote rejection in Senate polls

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sunday constituted a legal team to file a petition with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on rejection of votes during the election for the Senate chairman. The team — comprising Senator Farooq Naek, Senator Raza Rabbani, Sardar Latif Khan Khosa and Nayyer Hussain Bukhari — will file the petition on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“The fact is that Yusuf Raza Gilani was elected the Senate chairman, but he was deprived of his victory, as it was stolen. Presiding officer Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah committed a crime,” said PPP Information Secretary Faisal Karim Kundi while addressing a press conference at PPP media office here.

Senators Palwasha Khan and Rubina Khalid accompanied him. Kundi feared potential risk of a fire in the record room of the National Assembly due to which the CCTV video of the assembly building could be wasted to hide the issue of spy cameras found hidden in the polling booth.

“We have demanded the record and footage of CCTV cameras today and they announced the closure of National Assembly Secretariat on the pretext of COVID-19. We fear that they want to remove the record and footage of CCTV cameras and we fear they could use all the tactics to waste the record,” he said.

He said the ex-law minister of the PPP was giving lectures that the petition with regard to the rejection of votes in the Senate chairman election could not be challenge in the court and he was the same person who had advised Yusuf Raza Gilani not to write a letter and create tension with an institution.

He said government spokespersons were needlessly holding press conferences one after the other about cracks in PDM but their wish would never materialise. “The government spokespersons instead of taking care of the opposition should focus on the long march of the PDM, which is coming to Islamabad,” he said, adding that in the morning they held the press conference against the opposition and in evening they contact PPP chairman through WhatsApp.

He said the PPP was thankful to all the senators who remained steadfast and voted for Gilani as the PDM candidate. Kundi said the issue of spy cameras was far bigger than the Watergate scandal.

He said Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser was the custodian of the Parliament House and he should tell who had installed the spy cameras in the Senate Hall. He said Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz had lied about the country's economy because the common man was facing poverty, hunger, unemployment and was forced to commit suicide.

He said there was a competition between Shibli Faraz and Murad Saeed of using foul language. “Shibli Faraz should tell about his relation with the secretary Senate,” he said. Replying to a question about the defeat of PDM candidate in the election for the Senate deputy chairman, Kundi hinted at probe into less number of votes polled in the election and said a committee was expected to be constituted in a meeting of the PDM party heads.

He also hinted at bringing a no-confidence motion again the federal or the Punjab government from the PDM platform. To a question about resignations from the assemblies, he said the PDM will decide when to resign.

Senator Palwasha Khan said all the PTI spokespersons were wasting their time by criticizing PDM because their own members attempted to contact PPP chairman on WhatsApp and their names would be disclosed at an appropriate time. She said there were hypocrites in PTI and it had become a dump of political garbage. She said the government was planning to increase the petroleum prices and people were suffering hugely due to the rising inflation.