ISLAMABAD – Members of the upper house of the Parliament will elect Senate chairman and deputy chairman through secret ballot on Friday.
The polling will be initiated after oath-taking of 48 newly elected members, who bagged victory in March 3 elections.
According to the Senate Secretariat, the session will meet in the morning for oath-taking of the newly elected senators after which the session will be adjourned.
After the adjournment of the session, nomination papers for the chairman and deputy chairman will be submitted.
Later, the session would resume in the evening the same day to elect the chairman and deputy chairman of the Upper House.
The ruling PTI has nominated incumbent Senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, an independent Senator from Balochistan, as candidate for chairmanship while Mirza Muhammad Afridi, a senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been nominated for deputy chairman slot.
On the other hand, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an alliance of 10-Oppositon parties, has nominated Yousaf Raza Gillani and Abdul Ghafoor Haider as candidates for slots of chairman and deputy chairman respectively.
A tough contest is expected between Sanjrani and Gillan, who served a major blow to the PTI after defeating its candidate Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in Senate elections.
