Imran sets judicial commission condition for Senate chairman vote

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Sunday said his party was willing to vote in elections for the chairman Senate – provided the government forms a judicial commission to probe alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.

Leaders of the PTI were set to enter the Upper House of Parliament for the first time after the party won six seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the Senate elections on Thursday.

Following the elections, marred by allegations of horse-trading, the PTI vowed not to vote for the candidates of either the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for the position of Senate chairman and deputy chairman.

But on Sunday, the PTI chairman said the party may be ready to take part in the process to elect the head of Parliament's Upper House provided that the government fulfills its longstanding demand of forming a judicial commission to probe alleged irregularities and rigging in the May 2013 general elections.




"On one condition: our party is considering that if the N-League forms a judicial commission...because we have to get a judicial commission formed one way or the other. If they form a judicial commission, we may give (our votes)," said Khan.

The PTI would have to come out in protest otherwise and would have to resort to "shutting down the streets" to force the government into forming the commission, he said.

Any candidate vying for the office of the Senate chairman needs to secure a maximum of 48 votes to win the race – five ballots less than the simple majority of the total membership of the Senate.

Although the PML-N got a larger chunk in Thursday’s Senate elections, the opposition PPP still leads with 27 senators, while the N-League has 26 senators. Neither party can have its candidate elected as chairman or deputy without outside support of Senators from smaller parties.

The votes of PTI’s six newly-elected Senators put the party in a position to bargain for its demands.

The parties position in the Senate also puts the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and independent Senators in a key position to determine the new Senate chairman and deputy.

The position of parties in the Senate after Thursday's elections: