Over the past few months, the powerful alliance of eleven opposition parties has been laboring to oust the incumbent government with the intent to derail the Senate elections in March 2021.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, revealed his plans to sabotage the Senate polls during the PDM’s power show in Lahore on Sunday.
Additionally, other PDM leaders have threatened to march to Islamabad either in late January or early February and to submit their resignations en masse to disrupt the elections.
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The members of the opposition seem to be anxious about their dwindling ranks in the Upper House with regard to the upcoming Senate elections.
Their loss in these polls will render Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) the single largest party in the Senate and will enable it to amend the laws for ruthless accountability.
The Senate consists of 104 members, 52 of which will retire on 11 March 2021 following the expiry of their six-year constitutional tenures.
Statistically, 34 out of 52 (more than 65 percent) of the senators who intend to retire before the upcoming polls are from the opposition parties.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will be the biggest loser in terms of representation in the Senate as 57 percent of its members will be among the retirees.
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The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will lose eight of its senators including Deputy Senate Chairman, Saleem Mandviwala, Parliamentary Leader Sherry Rehman, the former Minister for Interior, Rehman Malik, and the former Minister for Law, Farooq Naek in March. However, as the PPP enjoys a majority in the Sindh Assembly, the prospects of Mandviwala, Malik, and Naek returning to the Senate are high.
Two members each from the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), the National Party (NP), and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), and one each from the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), and the Awami National Party (ANP) will also be retiring from the Senate.
Of the eighteen outgoing treasury senators, seven are from PTI, four are from MQM-P, three are from the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), and four independent ones are from the erstwhile FATA.
Other prominent officials retiring before the polls next year are Shibli Faraz, Nauman Wazir, Khushbakht Shujaat, Mian Ateeq Sheikh, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Nighat Mirza, Raja Zafarul Haq, Mushahidullah Khan, Pervaiz Rasheed, and JI chief Sirajul Haq.
