ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) have decided to take to task those Senators who violated the parties’ discipline by supporting Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.
PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari yesterday constituted a five-member fact-finding committee to ascertain the role of party senators in the voting on the no-confidence motion in the Senate against Sanjrani on August 1.
“Members of Committee are Yousuf Raza Gilani, Nayyer Hussain Bukhari, Saeed Ghani, Sabir Baloch and Farhatullah Babar. The committee may also co-opt other members if necessary. The fact-finding committee will also make recommendations about the resignations already submitted by party senators to the Chairman PPP,” said a party statement.
PPP Parliamentarians Secretary General Farhatullah Babar said that Bilawal had expressed deep disappointment with the alleged “horse trading” in the Senate and decided to “try to get to the bottom of it and find out why the joint opposition was unable to remove Sanjrani despite being in majority.”
“The members of fact-finding committee are drawn from all provinces. The PPP hopes that other opposition parties will also investigate the matter with respect to their senators,” he added. Another PPP leader said strict action will be taken against those found guilty.
Meanwhile, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif vowed yesterday to take strict action against senators who had violated the party discipline in noting on the no-confidence motion.
Speaking at a PML-N senators meeting, the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly said that 14 Senators had led to the rejection of the no-confidence motion against Sanjrani. He promised that these senators will be identified and strict action would be taken against them, local media reported.
The PML-N president said that the opposition will come together to prepare an action plan over this matter.
The opposition, which had the favour of 64 votes of the no-confidence motion, only got 50 votes and failed to remove the Senate chairman. The total votes required to unseat Sanjrani were 53. This implicated that 14 voters from the opposition had possibly defended Sanjrani.
PML-N leaders Ahsan Iqbal, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Senator Mushahidullah Khan said the party would identify those Senators who defected and did not support resolution of the opposition in Senate for removal of Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani.