Senate session’s requisition: Signatures of six senators declared ‘fake’

ISLAMABAD: A controversy hit the requisition for the Senate’s session as the signatures of six senators were declared ‘fake’, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The Senate has witnessed a new controversy over a requisition for a session which was submitted by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and ally parties stepped back from the requisition of the Upper House session.

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The documents revealed that the signatures of six senators on the requisition have been declared fake. The requisition was signed by overall 27 senators from PDM and its ally parties.

It emerged that the signatures of six PPP senators including Raza Rabbani, Farooq H Naek, Palwasha Khan, Robina Khalid and Shamim Akhtar, whereas, Dhinesh Kumar, Ataur Rehman and Shafiq Tareen asked the Senate Secretariat to not consider their signatures on the requisition.

Additionally, the signature of a senator from the National Party (NP) Muhammad Akram was also declared fake.

A notification was issued by the Upper House Secretariat which stated that the requisition does not meet the required number to summon a session after dissociation of nine out of 27 senators.

Yesterday, ARY News aired a story regarding differences between major political parties – Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and PPP – for summoning a Senate session.

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) senators ‘strongly opposed’ the requisition of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for the Senate session.

Sources revealed that PML-N senators strongly opposed PPP’s requisition for the Senate session amid the current situation.

Sources added that PML-N senators asked the PPP legislators to refrain from submitting a request for the Upper House session, otherwise, they would face severe reaction from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers.

However, PML-N had conditionally agreed to summon a Senate session after being forced by the PPP lawmakers and restricted the agenda to debate on the Jaranwala incident.

A PPP senator told ARY News that the party lawmakers wanted to start a debate on public issues including skyrocketing inflation, utility and fuel prices, however, PML-N leaders strongly opposed the request in a WhatsApp group of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) parties and its allies.

However, the Senate chairman has not summoned the session so far despite the submission of the requisition.