ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party central leader Senator Sherry Rehman has been appointed Leader of Opposition in the Senate, the first female to hold this position in country’s history.
She is the 12th Opposition Leader of of 104-member Upper House and seventh PPP member to hold this prestigious position.
Earlier, late prime minister Benazir Bhutto had served as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly during the two previous PML-N governments in the 1990s.
Senator Sherry Rehman, who enjoys support of 34 senators out of 53 on opposition benches, assumed her office immediately after her election was notified on Thursday.
Senator Azam Khan Swati of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), another opposition party in the House, contended that the list of members supporting Senator Sherry for the slot of opposition leader contravened rules and procedures of the Senate.
The move was ostensibly aimed at gaining support of those members from the opposition who had already signed her nomination.
Swati tried his best to prevent PPP leader’s election and met with representatives of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), and senators from the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) as well as the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), but to no avail.
Senator Sherry Rehman also made efforts to gain maximum support and eventually succeeded to achieve the target soon after her nomination for the slot of Leader of Opposition by her party.
After being elected, she thanked her party’s leadership and its allies for supporting her. She vowed to cooperate with all opposition parties in the Senate going forward and to make the Upper House more effective and active.
“We will play our role in making the government answerable,” she said, adding that the opposition would make efforts to strengthen the federation.
Born on December 21, 1960 in Karachi, Senator Sherry Rehman had served as Member National Assembly (MNA), as a federal minister and also as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States in the last PPP-led government.
In a related development, 11 independent senators, including six from the Fata, have decided to sit on the opposition benches.
On the other hand, 14 independent senators nominated by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz formally joined the treasury benches on Thursday.
Dr Asad Ashraf, who was elected in a by-election on a seat vacated after the disqualification of former senator Nehal Hashmi, also formally joined the treasury side.
According to a notification issued by the Senate Secretariat, two independent senators from Fata have also decided to join the treasury in addition to the 15 PML-N-backed senators.
Former finance minister Ishaq Dar, who was also elected in the March 3 Senate elections as a PML-N-backed independent from the Punjab, was not named in the notification as he has not taken the oath as a senator.
Earlier, the PPP had got elected an Independent Senator Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani from Balochistan as Senate chairman and Saleem Mandviwalla as deputy chairman on March 3.
The ruling PML-N has not been happy with the development and since then rumours have been making rounds in the federal capital that the ruling party may try to change the Senate chairman and deputy chairman.
Political analysts believe that now after all the members have formally taken their positions, the ruling PML-N is left short of four members and can make the move at an appropriate time to bring about the desired change through tabling a resolution against the senate chairman in line with Article 53 (7) (C) of the Constitution.