Sharif announces support for opposition Senate chief candidate

In a surprise move, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today backed the opposition nominee for the post of Senate chairman after he failed to muster support of smaller parties for the top slot in the upper house of parliament.
Sharif pledged support for the veteran politician Raza Rabbani during a lunch with all political parties to build consensus on the candidate for Senate chairman, elections for which are due on March 12.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP), alongwith a host of smaller parties, had already declared Rabbani as their joint candidate after a meeting last night.
An official said the prime minister presided over the meeting and discussed issues related to the election of chairman and deputy chairman of Senate.

After ascertaining the views of different leaders, he stunned them by announcing support for Rabbani as a consensus candidate, the official said.
"Raza Rabbani is more than acceptable to us as proposed by the PPP," the premier said, adding, "We want the new Senate chairman to be appointed through a consensus of all political parties."

Sharif also said that the chairman for Senate should be someone who is not controversial and can command support of all parties.
The move is more of political in nature as Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 26 seats in the house of 104 needed substantial support of several smaller parties, who had already rallied behind Rabbani.

"If any one party has absolute majority then they have a right to bring their candidate as Senate chairman or deputy chairman. But we should all work together for the appointment," Sharif added.
PPP with 27 seats was slightly better as it had already succeeded in getting support of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Awami National Party (ANP) and Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A).
After the agreement on the chairman, now the parties are searching for a deputy chairman.
There are also suggestions that after unconditional support for opposition nominated chairman, the Prime Minister should be given a free hand to pick his deputy.

But so far no decision has been taken except a general consensus that the deputy chairman should be from the largest province of Balochistan.
The Senate chairman is important as he works as acting president if the incumbent president is out of country, sick or resigns.