'PML-N, PPP suspicious of each other after yesterday's Senate defeat'

JHELUM: Federal Minister for IT Fawad Chaudhry has claimed the PML-N and the PPP are suspicious of each other after the Opposition's shock defeat in the Senate elections held yesterday for the chairman and deputy chairman's posts. 

"God has given PTI victory," Chaudhry said. "We won [Senate seats] from each of the [five] assemblies." 

"There is a need to make the Senate election process more transparent. The PML-N and the PPP are now suspicious of each other. All these parties only got together out of spite for Imran Khan," he said. 

Referring to the PDM's announcement that they will approach the courts to challenge the results of the Senate chairman election, Chaudhry said: "They will not getting anything from the courts — Sanjrani is chairman Senate now." 

A day earlier, Chaudhry had spoken on a TV talk show and suggested that the government was still willing to sit with the Opposition to introduce electoral reforms. 

He had noted that Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to hold Senate elections through an open ballot, yet the opposition did not support him. 

He claimed that the result was that most of the PML-N senators did not want to cast their votes in favour of Yousaf Raza Gillani.

He said the government and opposition would have to sit together as dialogue was the only solution to all problems and that the doors are never closed in a democratic system.