PDM leaders to discuss Senate chairman, deputy chairman polls

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz have moved ahead to set strategy for the election of chairman and deputy chairman of the Senate after winning Islamabad seat of the upper house, ARY News reported Thursday.

People’s Party and the PML-N leaders Bilawal Bhutto Zadari and Maryam Nawaz are expected to meet today to discuss the issue, sources said.

All member parties of the opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will be taken into confidence over the matter.

The leaders of two major parties of the opposition will discuss the strategy for the election of chairman and deputy chairman of the parliament’s upper house, according to sources.

The PDM parties joined hands in Wednesday’s Senate election to win the Senate seat from the federal capital for former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani against the prime minister’s finance adviser Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday thanked PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for supporting Gilani, the joint candidate of the PDM.

Well-informed sources said that the PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari telephoned Nawaz Sharif and Maulana Fazlur Rehman to extend his gratitude over support to Yousuf Raza Gilani in Senate polls.

“Gilani was the joint candidate of the opposition parties and his success is PDM’s victory,” said Fazlur Rehman. The members from the treasury benches are in contact with the opposition parties, claimed Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, sources said.

Matters related to the future course of the strategy of the anti-government movement also came under discussion, while they demanded of Prime Minister Imran Khan to step down from his office after losing Islamabad’s Senate seat.