ISLAMABAD: Both the government and the opposition have gone out of the way rewarded the independents and allies who had supported them in the election of the Senate chairman and nomination of the opposition leader, respectively, by making them chairmen of the committees of the upper house of parliament.
According to Dawn news, A careful analysis of the list of the chairmen of all the 39 standing and functional committees of the Senate shows that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had accommodated five senators, out of the six, who had all of a sudden supported Yousuf Raza Gilani for the office of the opposition leader on the last day by making them chairmen of the committees.
The PPP had also given the chairmanship of committees to the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Awami National Party (ANP), which had only one senator each in the house, despite the fact that according to the agreed formula, the chairmanship of a committee is offered to a party on every three senators.
Besides this, independent senator from ex-Fata Shamim Afridi, who had joined the PPP only a few weeks before the Senate elections, has also been made chairman of the committee on privatisation.
The PML-N, the other major opposition party, has also given the chairmanship to Prof Sajid Mir of Jamiat Ahle Hadith and to two JUI-F senators from its quota.
Similarly, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has also given the chairmanship of the committees to its allies, including the PML-Functional and PML-Q, both having only one senator each.
Sources in the opposition told that the leaderships of both the PML-N and PPP were upset over losing the chairmanship of three key committees, particularly the committee on human rights, and the two parties were now blaming each other for the loss.
On the other hand, the ruling PTI took maximum advantage of internal wrangling within the opposition ranks and the party was jubilant over getting the chairmanship of the committees on law and justice, human rights and interior, which were previously with the opposition parties.
