ISLAMABAD: On Tuesday the PTI has offered Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) the post of deputy chairman Senate.
Pervaiz Khattak Defence Minister said that the ruling party has told senior JUI-F leader Abdul Ghafoor Haideri that he can be the deputy chairman Senate.
The development was confirmed by the minister after he met the JUI-F leader with Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.
PML-N’s Punjab president Rana Sanaullah said the move by the government seemed to be an attempt to cause a rift within the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
“The JUI-F is bound by the decisions of the PDM,” he noted. “Maulana Fazlur Rehman chaired a meeting yesterday and it had been agreed with a consensus to nominate Yousaf Raza Gillani as the alliance’s joint candidate for the Senate chairman elections,” he said.
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Sanaullah added that a committee headed by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had been formed to select the nominee for the Senate deputy chairman post. The PML-N leader said that according to his information, the committee had picked Haideri’s name as its nominee for the post as well.
The former Punjab law minister, however, said that he didn’t think the JUI-F would accept the offer.
JUI-F representative Hafiz Hamdullah said he hadn’t spoken to Haideri officially but said that according to his information, the veteran JUI-F leader had not been approached by the government.
However, he said that if an offer is made, the PDM will take the decision on it. He confirmed that a committee headed by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will take the lead in finalising the names of the alliance’s nominee for the Senate deputy chairperson.
“How can we accept the government’s offer? We don’t even recognise the government,” said Hamdullah.
Sanaullah, on the other hand, said the government should recognise the Opposition’s numbers in the upper house and ensure Gillani’s election to the Senate chairman seat unopposed.
“According to my information, no direct offer has been made by the government [for the deputy Senate chairperson’s post],” he said, adding that it may be possible that an offer could have been made to Haideri when he met Khattak.