ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has readied itself to halt the Opposition parties’ no-confidence motion against Senate Chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani, sources informed Geo News, with the chief minister of Balochistan becoming active in managing it.
According to the sources, Balochistan CM Jam Kamal was set to remain in Islamabad in order to lead the efforts to make the no-confidence motion unsuccessful and would meet the Opposition leaders to convince them to rescind the move against Sanjrani.
In this regard, Kamal and Leader of the House in the Senate, Shibli Faraz, travelled to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman’s residence to meet him and exchange thoughts on the no-confidence motion.
Post-meeting, Fazl-ur-Rehman told media that the arrival of Faraz and Kamal at his residence was an honour but not enough as they did not bring any proposals.
The Opposition had already come quite far in its journey, the JUI-F chief said, warning to look out for what happened in the future. How was it possible to give in to the governments’ wishes when the Opposition had jointly come to where they were at present and made their decision, Fazl inquired.
How, he asked further, was it feasible for the Opposition to backtrack on their decision at this stage.
At that moment, however, the leader of the House responded by advising to make efforts to ensure the Senate’s dignity was not impacted. “The JUI-F leader’s party has representation in Balochistan and we presented to him our thoughts,” Faraz said, urging to protect the Senate’s dignity and pushing for all parties to play their part.
The Balochistan CM said his delegation had put forth the government’s request and wished for a step to uphold the Senate’s dignity.
“It feels like the consequences of the Opposition’s move may not be very good after all,” he added, noting that they should collectively make a decision to move towards improvement and engage in efforts to take things forward in a better way.
Sanjrani, Kamal said, had run the Opposition in a commendable manner and things would operate in a good manner in the future as well. “We, too, would have to rescind our requisition pertaining to the [Senate’s] deputy chairperson,” he added.
However, if the Opposition went ahead with its move, then the government would have to retort by doing the same, he said, adding, regardless, that they would sit down to have talks with the others.
It is noteworthy that the Opposition had already submitted its no-confidence motion in the Senate Secretariat for the replacement Sanjrani. The petition included the signatures of 44 members of the Opposition.
The Opposition had named Hasil Bizenjo as the joint candidate for the post of Senate chairperson. Bizenjo, the president of the National Party, hails from Balochistan and his party has five seats in the Senate.
