Observer Report Islamabad
The PTI-led government has succeeded in bagging the chairpersonship of crucial Senate committees.
The opposition parties, either due to internal differences among themselves or backchannel understanding, have been unable to head committees wherein they could have given a tough time to the government in the upper house.
The chairpersonship of the Senate Committee on Human Rights was first offered to the PPP. However, instead of retaining it, the PPP passed it on to the PML-N. The PML-N nominated Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed as the chairman of the committee.
However, he gave chairmanship to the government and became the head of the Standing Committee on Defence in return.
Earlier, PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Human Rights since 2018.
Being the chairman, he took up several human rights issues including abduction of and attacks on journalists.
He even summoned officers in uniform for a briefing on a few matters including enforced disappearances. Everyone appreciated his performance as the head of the human rights committee.
It has been learnt that Khokhar was no longer in the good books of the PPP leadership because of his statement wherein he questioned the party’s decision to bag the support of Balochistan Awami Party members for having elected Yousuf Raza Gilani as the opposition leader in Senate.
