Moral of the (Senate Chairman) tale: Democracy Zinda Hai

By Omar R Quraishi

The election of the Chairman of the Senate saw the following:

1. The first ever Senate chairman to be elected from Balochistan Sadiq Sanjrani



2. The PTI and the PPP -- not exactly friends -- both backed the same candidate, Sadiq Sanjrani
Earlier, the PTI chairman Imran Khan had categorically said that his party would never vote for any candidate put forward by the PPP





However, once the election came and the result was reached with Mr Sanjrani achieving a resounding victory by a relatively wide margin, both the parties celebrated it as if the candidate were exclusively its own.



PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari gives a gulab jamun to Senate Chairman-elect Sadiq Sanjrani


3. The ruling PML-N, which had the highest number of senators, though not enough to win an outright majority, saw its candidate, Gen Zia's 'opening batsman' fail.

4. The new Senate chairman was nominated by the Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddoos Bizenjo on a seat from Awaran (PB 41) where he managed to win even though he got a mere 544 votes. Mr Bizenjo is himself from the PML-Q and despite that the PTI and the PPP both backed his candidate, meaning in essence that a man who got less than 550 votes for his own MPA election decided who the new Senate chairman was going to be.

5. In other words, a relative nobody was elected as chairman of the Senate -- a post whose incumbent acts on behalf of the President whenever the latter is out of the country -- by another relative nobody.

6. Moral of the (Senate Chairman) tale: Democracy Zinda Hai



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