PML-N, PPP form committees to sniff out Senate turncoats

[ahlam1399]

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have formed respective committees to determine who voted against party lines after the opposition failed to oust Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani despite having a majority in the Upper House.The opposition was left red-faced on Thursday after Sanjrani survived no-confidence resolutions tabled against him, with the motion failing to receive the 53 votes required for his removal. Fifty votes were received in favour of the resolution, while five votes were rejected. Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla was also not ousted. According to an official statement from the PPP on Friday: “Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari today constituted a five-member fact-finding committee to ascertain the role of party senators in the voting on no-confidence motion in the Senate against chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.”Former premier Yousuf Raza Gillani, Nayyer Bokhari, Saeed Ghani, Sabir Baloch and Farhatullah Babar comprise the committee members, the statement added. The body may co-opt other members if necessary, and will also make recommendations about the resignations already submitted by party senators to the chairman. All of the PPP’s senators had already submitted their resignations to Bilawal.Meanwhile, PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif chaired a meeting of his party senators and expressed concern on the way voting was conducted. He also said a committee would find out who voted against party policy. Shahbaz had said the party would get to the bottom of the matter and would “expose those who sold their conscience”.It emerged later that Senator Rana Maqbool would head the PML-N’s body. Speaking at a press conference along with party leaders Ahsan Iqbal and Marriyum Aurangzeb later on Friday, Senator Mushahidullah Khan said 64 Senators out of 100 asked for leave to move a resolution to de-seat of the Senate chairman. But later 14 senators of the opposition voted against the resolution of their own parties and only 50 supported the move, he added.Mushahidullah said the matter of stolen votes would be investigated. The senator said the government benches’ move to remove Mandviwalla only received 32 votes. He said everybody knew that opposition had the strength of 64 senators, adding the malpractice in the Senate had damaged democracy.PML-N lawmaker Ahsan Iqbal said the Senate was the federation’s symbol and it was unfortunate that during voting sanctity of the Upper House was damaged. He said a baseless media campaign was continuing to tarnish the character of their leadership.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/EsrUL7IBx8w

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