News Desk |
United Opposition’s candidate for Senate Chairman, Mir Hasil Bizenjo has claimed that the Director General of the Inter Services Intelligence is behind the shocking defeat of the no-confidence motion in the senate. However government ministers and politicians have condemned him for making irresponsible statements.
یہ چودہ کِس کے لوگ ہیں؟
میر حاصل بزنجو سے سوال۔ pic.twitter.com/ZXoej3wmJx— افشاں مصعب (@AfshanMasab) August 1, 2019
The United Opposition had submitted a no-confidence motion against sitting Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, in a bid to deal a political blow to the government of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.
However, the no-confidence motion was rejected after it managed to gather only 50 votes, 3 shy of the required total in a house of 105 members.
Read more: Sanjrani will remain Chairman, big blow to Maryam & Bilawal
The voting was conducted in a secret ballot. The result showed that some members of the opposition had not cast their votes according to their party’s wishes.
The opposition was confident of getting 64 votes, with 5 votes being cancelled or rejected, they could still have received 58.
It seems however, that some 8 members of the opposition did not vote in line with their party. It is also being speculated that the rejected votes were deliberately double stamped. The opposition has decried the failure of the no-confidence motion as horse trading and an attack on democracy.
However many politicians participating in TV debates pointed out that Hasil Bizenjo was Nawaz Sharif’s nominee. PPP leadership had reluctantly agreed to his name -and many PMLN leaders also disliked him for his radical views and his past affiliation with separatist ideas. Many PMLN leaders expressed doubts that PPP may have betrayed PMLN as part of some deal with the government. It was also observed that Bilawal Bhutto and PPP leaders looked happy or relaxed after the loss of contest in the Senate but PMLN leaders were visibly dejected.
The losing candidate Hasil Bizenjo’s allegations came after the vote concluded. He was hounded by reporters as he left the Senate hall. Responding to a question, by a reporter who was continuously asking him to name the senators who did not vote for opposition, a visibly frustrated Bizenjo retorted: “Those were Gen Faiz’s men”.
Government ministers, and most in the media, have strongly condemned Hasil Bizenjo for making the irresponsible statement, a speculation without any proof. PTI ministers have pointed out that ballot was secret so that senators could vote as per their conscience and free will without fear. They also reminded opposition leaders that PTI had offered to both PPP and PMLN in 2015 to do away with the secret ballot but the idea was rejected by both the parties.