Senate: Nayyer, Baloch elected unopposed

ISLAMABAD: Senators Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and Sabir Baloch have been elected Chairman Senate and Deputy Chairman Senate unopposed as no one else submitted papers, Geo News reported.

The opposition in the Senate decided not to contest for the posts of Chairman and Deputy Chairman. It was also decided to nominate Senator Ishaq Dar for the post of Leader of Opposition in the Senate.

With this development no other candidate submitted papers till the given time and after the verification of the papers ruling coalition candidates Nayyar Bukhari (Chairman) and Sabir Baloch (Deputy Chairman) were announced elected unopposed.

As many as 54 Senators-elect took oath as members of the Upper House earlier today at a special sitting chaired by Presiding Officer Senator Afrasiab Khattak.

The Presiding Officer nominated by President Asif Ali Zardari, administered oath to the newly elected members.

After taking oath, the members were called to sign the roll of members for the Senate in alphabetic order.

Senator Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh was the first to sign while Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa was the last member to sign the roll of members.

The Presiding Officer will now administer oath to the newly elected Chairman election. The new Chairman will then take the seat and conduct the election for Deputy Chairman and administer him the oath.

After fulfilling this constitutional requirement, a new House will be in place with new Senators to stay in the House for a term of six-year while their 50 colleagues - the present ones- will retire after next three years.

After the recent Senate elections, Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians has emerged as a majority party in the House with 41 seats followed by PML-N with 14 seats and ANP with 12 seats and JUI-F and MQM with seven seats each, PML-Q five, BNP-A four and National Party and PML-F with one member each. Remaining are stated to be independents in the House of 104 members.

With the power game taking its course, parties like Jamat-e-Islami, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, PKMAP and Awami Muslim League lost the ground and will have no representation in the Upper House from Monday.

Those who took oath from Punjab include, PML-N's M. Hamza, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Zafarullah Khan and Rafiq Rajwana; PPP's Zaheer-ud-Din Baber Awan, PML-Q's Kamil Ali Agha and an independent candidate Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari.

Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Ishaq Dar and Khalida Perveen of PPPP and Nuzhat Sadiq of PML-N took oath on seats reserved for ulema and technocrats and women respectively. Minority member from Punjab is Kamran Michael of PML-N.

From Sindh, Saeed Gani, Raza Rabbani, Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamra and Karim Khawaja of PPPP; Syed Mustafa Kamal and Tahir Mashadi of MQM and Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah of PML-F took oath on general seats, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh of PPPP and Barrister Farogh Naseem of MQM against the seats reserved for ulema and technocrats and PPPP's Mudassar Sehar Kamran and MQM's Nasreen Jalil took oath on seats reserved for women. Minority Senator-elect from Sindh is Harri Ram Kishori Lal.

From Khyber PakhtunKhwa, ANP's Shahi Syed, Baz Muhammad Khan and Azam Hoti, PPPP's Haji Saifullah Khan Bangash and Ahmad Hassan, JUI-F's Muhammad Talha Mahmood and PML-N's Nisar Muhammad took oath. These members were elected on general seats.

On two seats reserved for women Mrs. Rubina Khalid of PPPP and Mrs. Zahida Khan of ANP and on seats reserved for ulema and technocrats ANP's Ilyas Ahmed Bilour and PPPP's Farhatullah Babar took oath. ANP's Amar Jeet is a minority member from KPK.

From Balochistan, ANP's Advocate Muhammad Daud Khan Achekzai, PPPP's Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani, Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi and Muhammad Yousaf Baloch, PML-Q's Saeedul Hassan Mandokhail, JUI-F's Hafiz Hamdullah and BNP-A'a Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri took oath on general seats.

BNP-A's Naseema Ehsan and PML-Q's Mrs Robina Irfan and Mufti Abdul Sattar of JUI-F and Rozi Khan Kakar of PPPP took oath on seats reserved for women and ulema and technocrats respectively. Minority Senator-elect from Balochistan is Heman Dass of JUI-F.

For FATA, Hidayatullah, Malik Najamul Hassan, Saleh Shah and Hilalur Rehman took oath.

From federal capital Mushahid Hussain Syed of PML-Q and Osman Saifullh took oath on seat reserved for ulema and technocrats and a general seat respectively.