ISLAMABAD: Opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has announced that they will challenge the rejection of seven votes cast in favour of their candidate Yousaf Raza Gilani in the Supreme Court.
Gilani who lost the Senate chairman election to Sadiq Sanjrani by six votes despite the opposition majority in the house.
Addressing a press conference outside the Parliament House, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Pervez Ashraf said PDM candidate Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani was defeated in the Senate election despite the fact that the opposition parties had a clear majority in the upper house of the parliament.
He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government installed cameras in the Senate to record the Senators casting their votes. Seven votes cast in favour of Gilani were rejected merely on the basis of stamp at the wrong place.
He further added that the PDM was confident that the court would give it relief. The government-backed candidate was defeated despite employing all tactics. The government stole this election and its contempt of the parliament. Sanjrani would have refused to contest this election had he been a democracy/Pakistan lover because he knew he did not have the numbers to win this election, Ashraf said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal said this would not happen even in a fourth world country. The world was exploring mars and talking about the fourth industrial revolution, but Pakistan was still fighting for respect for the vote.
Seven votes cast in favour of the PDM were rejected and this decision of the staff of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would be challenged in the Supreme Court. He said the government and other people had made the Senate a joke. He said no senator from the opposition parties surrendered or sold his vote and he would salute all these senators for their courage.
PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said that the PTI government violated the constitution and parliamentary norms during the Senate election. PDM would challenge the unfair rejection of votes in the Supreme Court. He said that such tactics would not help the government stop the anti-government march. He said the PDM would snatch the election back.
This comes as the ruling party won both seats in the senate chairmanship election.
In the race for chairman, Sadiq Sanjrani received 48 votes, while Yousaf Raza Gillani received 42 votes.
On the other hand, government candidate Mirza Mohammad Afridi won the election for the deputy chairman of the Senate with 54 votes, defeating Opposition’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, who grabbed 44 votes.
