PPP be given Senate opposition leader’s slot: Pervaiz Ashraf

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Sunday openly claimed the slot of opposition leader in Senate, saying that being the largest party on the opposition benches in the upper house of the parliament, the slot of the opposition leader should be given to it.

Former prime minister and senior vice president of Pakistan Democratic Movement Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that with 21 senators in the upper house, the PPP was the single largest opposition party in Senate and it believed that, in accordance with the democratic traditions, the slot of opposition leader should be given to it.

Apparently, he was responding to Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz remarks on Sunday that the PDM had already decided that the leader of the opposition in Senate would be from the PML-N, and a win or loss in chairman, deputy chairman positions did not count as a factor to revisit that.

Raja said the two other most important parliamentary positions -- the opposition leader in the National Assembly and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee -- were being held by the PML-N already.

He said it would be justified that the third important parliamentary position, the leader of the opposition in Senate, should go to the PPP, the single largest opposition party in the upper house.

Former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said he was also a member of the committee, formed by the party heads of the PDM, to propose the opposition names for the slots of chairman, deputy chairman and the opposition leader in Senate.

He said he had agreed that the three Senate slots be distributed among the three largest opposition parties in the PDM by proposing candidate of the PPP for chairman slot, the JUI for deputy chairman and the PML-N for the opposition leader.

“However, after manipulation in the elections and denial of the chairmanship to Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani by wrongly rejecting seven votes, cast in his favour, the situation had completely changed,” he said.

He said that after election to the office of chairman Senate, the situation with regard to the available slots in the upper house and its distribution among various opposition parties had completely changed.

“The stance of the PPP with regard to the opposition leader was based on democratic principles, equity and fair play,” he added. Pervaiz Ashraf expressed the hope that the issue of the leader of the opposition in Senate would be settled amicably with consensus among the combined opposition parties in accordance with the established democratic norms and traditions.