ISLAMABAD – Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani Thursday kept his post in the Senate after a resolution of the opposition to remove him was defeated as only 50 Senators out of 104 Senators voted in favour of the move.
Senator Muhammad Ali Saif who was presiding the session started the voting process when 64 Senators approved moving of a resolution against the incumbent Chairman Senate.
When the voting started, the hall of the Senate was closed, however the Presiding Officer allowed use of lobbies. The empty ballot box was shown to the two polling agents. Senator Javed Abbasi was acting as polling agent of the opposition while Nauman Wazir Khattak was the polling agent from the treasury benches.
A hundred Senators took part in the voting while three Senators Mushtaq Ahmed, Sirajul Haq and Chaudhry Tanveer did not cast their vote.
The opposition needed at least 53 votes for no-confidence but fell just three votes short of victory. Five votes were rejected, while 45 were cast in favour of Sanjrani.
The resolution against the Chairman Senate was moved by 42 Senators including Leader of the Opposition in the House Raja Muhammad Zafar ul Haq, Senator Atta Ur Rehman, Molvi Faiz Muhammad, Abida Muhammad Azeem, Agha Shahzaib Durrani, Rana Mahmood ul Hassan, Pervaiz Rasheed, Musadik Masood Malik, Sitara Ayaz, Pervaiz Rashid and others.
Sadiq Sanjrani assumed office of the Chairman Senate on March 12, 2018. He was the youngest and first ever Chairman of the Senate who hailed from the province of Balochistan.
This was for the first time in the history of Pakistan that a no-confidence motion was submitted against the senate chairman, demanding he steps aside after only being in office for over a year.
The opposition parties had nominated Hasil Bizenjo as their candidate for the post of chairman Senate.
