PPP to approach IHC against rejection of votes in Senate chairman election

• Faial Karim Kundi  says Yousuf Raza Gilani was elected the Senate chairman, but he was deprived of his victory, as it was stolen.
• The PPP leader says presiding officer Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah committed a crime by rejecting votes.
• The PPP will file a petition in the Islamabad High Court against the rejection of votes.

ISLAMABAD: The PPP on Sunday constituted a four-member team of its legal experts to draft a petition to be filed at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the rejection of votes in the Senate chairman election.

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, according to report in The News.

The Opposition parties are mulling over options to seek a legal remedy to their defeat in the Senate chairman election when their candidate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani lost to Sadiq Sanjarni by seven votes.

All the seven votes were declared invalid by Presiding Officer Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah for being stamped wrongly.

Read more: Senate chairman elections 'a great game', says Pervez Khattak

While addressing a press conference at the PPP media office along with senators Palwasha Khan and Rubina Khalid, PPP Information Secretary Faisal Karim Kundi said the fact is that Yousuf Raza Gilani was elected the Senate chairman, but he was deprived of his victory, as it was stolen.

“PO Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah committed a crime,” he said.

The PPP leaders, according to the publication, feared the 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 the 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,” Kundi 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 former PM Gilani not to write a letter and create tension with an institution.

Read more: Bilawal expresses full confidence in opposition senators at dinner hosted at Zardari House

‘Govt representatives contacting PPP chairman’

He said government spokespersons were needlessly holding press conferences one after the other about cracks in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (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 the 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.

“Shibli Faraz should tell about his relationship with the secretary Senate,” he said.

Read more: Azam Swati tells Fazlur Rehman to rethink siding with PDM after 'his candidate was rejected' in Senate

Fewer votes to Ghafoor Haideri may be probed

Replying to a question about the defeat of the PDM candidate in the election for the Senate deputy chairman, Kundi hinted at a 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.