The first regular session of the Senate after its most recent election turned out to be hot and cold where opposition and treasury benches traded barbs but also agreed on working together to pull the country out of the economic quagmire.
The session on Thursday started with 11 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seats vacant since the election wasn’t held there over the delay in the administration of oath to KP assembly members elected on reserved seats.
As the first order of business, Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani took oath from Faisal Vawda and Maulana Abdul Wasay, who became Senate members after winning the election on April 2.
Their oath taking was delayed as the two senators were not present in the house’s opening session on April 7.
In a fiery speech after the oath, the newly appointed opposition leader, Shibli Faraz, questioned the legitimacy of the present assemblies and demanded a thorough investigation into the discrepancies in Form-45 and Form-47 of the recently held general elections.
He regretted that general elections were not conducted in Punjab and KP within the constitutional deadline of 90 days after the dissolution of provincial assemblies.
“The Constitution was violated in the same way in the case of the National Assembly.”
The PTI was “deprived” of its election symbol and “ridiculous and confusing symbols” like brinjal and pumpkin were allotted to its candidates, Mr Faraz said.
The majority of voters “gave the mandate to PTI” which was “stolen through wide-scale manipulations in the Forms-47”.
“We are a reality. You cannot set us aside”, he remarked.
The PTI leader claimed that at present, the country had “the highest number of political prisoners, with 99.9 per cent of them belonging to PTI”.
He ended his speech with an offer of reconciliation, underlining the need for collective efforts to address Pakistan’s enormous challenges.
