Opposition’s Sadiq Sanjrani elected 8th chairman of Senate
Opposition’s Sadiq Sanjrani elected 8th chairman of Senate
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ISLAMABAD: Opposition-backed Sadiq Sajrani on Monday bagged a lion’s share of votes to be elected Senate chairman.

ISLAMABAD: Opposition-backed Sadiq Sajrani on Monday bagged a lion’s share of votes to be elected Senate chairman.

Sajrani pulled 57 votes while Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Raja Zafarul Haq received 46 votes.

Hours after taking oath as a senator, Sajrani is being sworn in as the chairman of Senate in the presence of the Presiding officer Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan Nasir.

Meanwhile, the vote count for deputy chairman is currently underway.

Newly-elected Senate Chairman Sadiq Sajrani 

Sadiq Sanjrani from Chaghi in Balochistan was nominated by Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bijenzo for the Senate top slot. His candidature was backed by the PPP and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Born on April 14, 1978 in Balochistan’s Nok Kundi town, Sanjrani obtained his early education from Chaghi and later received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Balochistan.

Throughout his career, Sanjrani has served many positions including coordinator complaint cell of Prime Minister’s secretariat and member of observatory commission of prime minister in 2009 and was appointed as chief coordinator of PM complaint cell and adviser in 2009. The PPP, PTI and the Balochistan CM reached a consensus on this account after rounds of talks.

Newly-elected senators take oath

Earlier in the day, newly-elected members of the upper house of parliament reached the upper house of the parliament to take oath as senators.

Presiding officer and PML-N leader Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan Nasir administered oath of 52 senators including Dr Asad Ashraf of PML-N, who replaced Nehal Hashmi. The only newly-elected senator missing from the ceremony was former finance minister Ishaq Dar.

The Senate comprises 66 general seats, 17 women, 17 technocrat and four minorities seats. Of these 104 seats, each province has 23 seats, including 14 general seats, four women seats, four technocrat seats and a non-Muslim seat.

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) has all eight general seats in the Senate while Islamabad has four seats, including two general seats, a women seat and a technocrat seat.

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.