Senate elects Sadiq Sanjrani as new chairman and Mirza Muhammad Afridi as deputy chairman

According to details, Sadiq Sanjrani secured 48 votes for the slot of chairman, while Mirza Muhammad Afridi got 54 votes to be elected as deputy chairman.

The senate session was marked by a scandal today with both opposition and government trading barbs over hidden cameras found in the polling booth.

Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, who was presiding over the session and also administered the oath taking ceremony of all 48 newly elected members, ordered to constitute a body having equal number of senators from government and opposition to prove the matter of ‘hidden cameras’ in senate’s polling booth.

"Recovered items like cameras and otherwise, will be secured and sealed till the final disposal of the matter," he said.

He also announced establishing new polling booths and asked representatives of both government and opposition to inspect them thoroughly.

The ‘hidden camera’ scandal

Earlier today, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar claimed to have found a hidden camera in polling booth.

He shared a picture on twitter and wrote that he along with Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Musadik Malik, found spy cameras right over the polling booth.

Meanwhile, Musadiq Malik also tweeted saying they found another hidden device in polling booth.

On the other hand, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has dismissed the claims made by PPP Senator and said that he left the Senate building at 5:30pm not 5:30am.

The elections top posts of senate will be held today amid a controversy over sale and purchase of votes and allegations by opposition that their lawmakers were being pressurized to vote for government candidates.

Nominations

The government had nominated Sadiq Sanjrani as its candidate while the opposition supported former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, who defeated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)’s Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the recently-held Senate polls.

Gillani’s victory came as a blow for PTI, following which Prime Minister Imran Khan decided to take vote of confidence from the parliament. PM also accused opposition of vote selling and using money to influence the polls.

For the slot of Deputy Chairman, PDM had nominated Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, while government has nominated Mirza Muhammad Afridi, who hails from FATA.