Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Yousaf Raza Gillani has been appointed as the Senate opposition leader by the Senate chairman.
In a notification issued by the Senate Secretariat, the PPP leader was named as the leader of the opposition in the upper house of parliament. Gillani has won the slot much to the chagrin of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) that wanted the slot.
“In pursuance of Rule 16(3) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012, the chairman has been pleased to declare Senator Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, with effect from March 26, 2021,” said a notification issued by the Senate Secretariat.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is not happy with the victory of the PPP lawmaker. In a tweet, Ahsan Iqbal said that Gillani bypassed the PDM lawmakers, whose votes made him a senators, to become the Senate opposition leader. “Gillani, though a respectable man, preferred the senators of the Balochistan Awami Party(BAP),” he said, regretting the unilateral action of the PPP.
The PPP had formally appointed Gillani earlier in the day. His nomination by the PPP marked a decisive crack within the PDM ranks, as the PML-N wanted to nominate its own man, Tarar, for the slot as per the reported commitments made in the PDM meeting. Gillani had lost the Senate chairman elections to the government-backed candidate, Sadiq Sanjrani.
