Echoes of 'zinda hai Bhutto zinda hai' (Bhutto is alive) and Jiay Bhutto roared in the Senate as 54 newly elected senators took oath of office on Monday, presided by Senator Afrasiab Khattak.
Secretary Senate Iftikharullah Babar formerly welcomed the newly elected senators.
Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, currently leader of the house, has replaced Senate Chairman Farooq H Naek, while Senator Sabir Baloch replaced Jan Muhammad Jamali as the deputy. Both were elected unopposed as no one filed papers against them.
The opposition in the Senate decided not to contest for the posts of Chairman and Deputy Chairman. It was also decided to nominate Senator Ishaq Dar for the post of Leader of Opposition in the Senate.
With this development no other candidate submitted papers till the given time and after the verification of the papers ruling coalition candidates Nayyer Bukhari (Chairman) and Sabir Baloch (Deputy Chairman) were announced elected unopposed.
Having a decisive role in the upper house, the senators elected the chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate for the next three years.
The speaker called names in an alphabetical sequence and senators came one after another to sign the role of members.
Senator Khattak requested the house to maintain peace as they chanted pro-PPP slogans. "We don't have much time," he said.
For the first time under the 18th amendment, four minorities' senators have also been elected from the four provinces.
The new senators will remain in the house for a six-year term. The 50 colleagues they are joining will step down in three years.
Senator Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh was the first to sign while Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa was the last member to sign the roll of members.
Those who took oath from Punjab include, PML-N's M. Hamza, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Zafarullah Khan and Rafiq Rajwana; PPP's Zaheer-ud-Din Baber Awan, PML-Q's Kamil Ali Agha and an independent candidate Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari.
Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Ishaq Dar and Khalida Perveen of PPP and Nuzhat Sadiq of PML-N took oath on seats reserved for ulema and technocrats and women respectively. Minority member from Punjab is Kamran Michael of PML-N.
From Sindh, Saeed Gani, Raza Rabbani, Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamra and Karim Khawaja of PPP; Syed Mustafa Kamal and Tahir Mashadi of MQM and Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah of PML-F took oath on general seats, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh of PPP and Barrister Farogh Naseem of MQM against the seats reserved for ulema and technocrats and PPP's Mudassar Sehar Kamran and MQM's Nasreen Jalil took oath on seats reserved for women. Minority Senator-elect from Sindh is Harri Ram Kishori Lal.
From Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ANP's Shahi Syed, Baz Muhammad Khan and Azam Hoti, PPP's Haji Saifullah Khan Bangash and Ahmad Hassan, JUI-F's Muhammad Talha Mahmood and PML-N's Nisar Muhammad took oath. These members were elected on general seats.
On two seats reserved for women Mrs. Rubina Khalid of PPP and Mrs. Zahida Khan of ANP and on seats reserved for ulema and technocrats ANP's Ilyas Ahmed Bilour and PPP's Farhatullah Babar took oath. ANP's Amar Jeet is a minority member from KPK.
From Balochistan, ANP's Advocate Muhammad Daud Khan Achekzai, PPP's Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani, Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi and Muhammad Yousaf Baloch, PML-Q's Saeedul Hassan Mandokhail, JUI-F's Hafiz Hamdullah and BNP-A'a Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri took oath on general seats.
BNP-A's Naseema Ehsan and PML-Q's Mrs Robina Irfan and Mufti Abdul Sattar of JUI-F and Rozi Khan Kakar of PPP took oath on seats reserved for women and ulema and technocrats respectively. Minority Senator-elect from Balochistan is Heman Dass of JUI-F.
For FATA, Hidayatullah, Malik Najamul Hassan, Saleh Shah and Hilalur Rehman took oath.
From federal capital Mushahid Hussain Syed of PML-Q and Osman Saifullh took oath on seat reserved for ulema and technocrats and a general seat respectively
The oath-taking ceremony was attended by senior politicians, parliamentarians and people belonging to different walks of life. All the galleries were full with media persons and visitors.
The PPP has emerged majority party in the upper house with 41 seats followed by PML-N, 14, ANP, 12, JUI-F and MQM, seven seats each, PML-Q, five, BNP-A, four, and National Party and PML-F, one seat each, in the house of one 104.
It merits mentioning here that Nayyer Bokhari is the 12th Chairman of the Senate. Senator Wasim Sajjad of the PML-Q was elected Chairman of the Senate for four terms, while Habibullah Marwat, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Mian Muhammad Soomro and Ghulam Ishaq Khan were twice elected as Senate Chairman. Farooq H Naek served as Senate Chairman once.