ISLAMABAD: Presiding Officer Sen. Sardar Yaqub Khan Nasar on Monday administered the oath to 51 of 52 senators who were elected on March 3.
Sen. Ishaq Dar of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) could not take the oath as he is in London for medical treatment.
All the newly elected senators were then invited to sign the member rolls. Members will elect a Senate chairman and deputy chairman through a secret ballot.
The PML-N and its allies have nominated senators Raja Zafar-ul-Haq and Usman Kakar for chairman and deputy chairman, respectively.
Opposition parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), have nominated Sadiq Sanjrani, an independent senator from Balochistan, and the PPP’s Saleem Mandviwala for chairman and deputy chairman, respectively.
Candidates have submitted their nomination papers to the Senate secretariat for scrutiny. Following the election, the chairman will take the oath and then swear in his deputy.
Under the Senate election rules, the Upper House of Parliament will elect a chairman and deputy chairman each with a majority vote.
Newly elected senators take oath
Newly elected senators take oath
Bangladesh leader pushes for SAARC revival after meeting Indian, Pakistani dignitaries
- Muhammad Yunus met Pakistan’s parliamentary speaker, Indian FM at Khaleda Zia’s funeral on Wednesday
- SAARC has been dysfunctional since 2016, after India withdrew following a militant attack it blamed on Islamabad
ISLAMABAD: Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Younus this week pushed for reviving the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) platform after meeting dignitaries from India, Pakistan and other parts of the region.
SAARC has been effectively dysfunctional since 2016, when its planned Islamabad summit collapsed after India withdrew following a militant attack it blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad denied involvement, but New Delhi’s decision prompted Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan to pull out, leading to the indefinite postponement of the summit.
Younus met Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at former Bangladesh premier Khaleda Zia’s state funeral in Dhaka on Wednesday. The funeral also saw a handshake between the Indian and Pakistani representatives, the first high-level contact between officials of the two countries since their conflict in May.
“During the meetings, Professor Yunus repeatedly emphasized the need to revive the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC),” Yunus’ account on social media platform X said.
“We witnessed a true SAARC spirit at the funeral yesterday,” the account quoted Yunus as saying. “SAARC is still alive. The SAARC spirit is still alive.”
The Bangladesh leader said apart from Jaishankar and Sadiq, representatives from South Asia who attended the funeral included Nepal’s Foreign Minister Bala Nanda Sharma, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Employment and Tourism Vijitha Herath, and Maldives Minister of Higher Education and Labor Ali Haider Ahmed.
Yunus said he tried to convene an informal gathering of SAARC leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last year.
His statement to revive SAARC follows that of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who earlier this month also called for reviving the South Asian platform.
Sharif’s message last month came as the bloc marked the 40th anniversary of its founding charter. The Pakistani premier stressed the importance of deeper economic collaboration and collective responses to shared regional challenges such as poverty, climate-induced natural disasters, food and energy insecurity, and public-health vulnerabilities.
