Staff Reporter
Islamabad
A day after Senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani survived no-trust vote against him, opposition parties formed on Friday committees to find out who violated party discipline and voted against their joint candidate Hasil Bizenjo.
As many as 14 members of the opposition parties ditched the party leadership by either voting against their own resolution or deliberately wasting their votes. The resolution to move a no-confidence vote against Sanjrani had been passed comfortably by opposition senators, with 64 voting in its favour.
However, the opposition which required 53 of the 64 senators’ votes to send Sanjrani packing, fell three short when the results of the secret ballot were announced. The final vote count was 50 votes in favour of the motion, five votes rejected, and 45 cast against.
“Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday constituted a five-member fact-finding committee to ascertain the role of party senators in the voting on no-confidence motion in the Senate against chairman Sadiq Sanjrani,” stated an official statement.
The committee members are former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani, Nayyer Bokhari, Saeed Ghani, Sabir Baloch and Farhatullah Babar. The committee, the statement added, may co-opt other members if necessary, and will also make recommendations about the resignations already submitted by party senators to the chairman. All of the PPP’s 21 senators submitted their resignations to Bilawal after the embarrassing defeat. PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif also constituted a committee headed by Senator Rana Maqbool, vowing strict action against turncoats who supported Sanjrani in the no-confidence vote.
Speaking to the media, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said the investigation would be conducted to expose the senators who sold their conscience.
