Federal Minister Pervaiz Khattak on Tuesday offered the office of Senate deputy chairman to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
Pervaiz Khattak and JUI-F Secretary-General Abdul Ghafoor Haideri were jointly talking with media persons here.
“I offer Abdul Ghafoor Haideri to become our deputy chairman [in the] Senate,” Khattak said during the media talk.
“Are you nominated for the office of Senate deputy chairman?” a newsman questioned Ghafoor Haideri.
“I have not been formally informed by the PDM [Pakistan Democratic Movement] so far,” Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said. “Sadiq Sanjrani is chairman and we meet on and off,” he added.
“Could not say, who will be the chairman after March 12,” JUI leader further said. “Presently he is our chairman,” he said.
Reacting to the news, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab President Rana Sanaullah said that the move by the government seemed to be an attempt to cause a rift within the alliance of the opposition parties.
“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.
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 did not think the JUI-F would accept the offer.
Earlier, the opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement, decided to field a JUI-F candidate for the slot of Senate deputy chairman while the PML-N will get the post of opposition leader in the upper house of parliament.
A meeting of the steering committee was held under the chair of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi at his residence. The meeting deliberated on names of candidates for the elections; however, an official announcement will be made by PDM head Fazl.
Earlier, PDM nominated newly-elected Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani as the joint candidate in the forthcoming Senate chairman election.
PDM chief Fazl announced Gillani’s candidature for the Senate chairman election after a meeting in Islamabad attended by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz and other members of the alliance.
The PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari addressed the gathering via video-link.
