File photo of Pakistan Senate
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday agreed to support each other’s candidates in the Senate by-elections on March 14, indicating an easing of the former’s refusal to participate in the parliamentary process over alleged rigging in the 2024 general elections.
Since the elections, in which the JUIF claims it was denied its true mandate through rigging in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the party has refused to vote in the elections for the president, prime minister, speaker or deputy speaker. It has also rebuffed attempts by the ruling coalition to include it in government, while also stopping shy of joining the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in protesting against the alleged rigging.
On Tuesday, a JUIF delegation led by Secretary General Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri visited the PPP Secretariat and met former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, PPP Secretary General Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and MNA Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani. Following the meeting, Gilani told media the PPP had held a “few” meetings with JUIF chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and welcomed the party’s delegation to “work together in Parliament.”
Bukhari, meanwhile, said the meeting was held on the directions of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and President Asif Ali Zardari. He said the JUIF had sought the PPP’s support for three seats from Balochistan, which the party had consented to. In exchange, the JUIF announced it would support the PPP’s candidate for the Senate from Islamabad.
Under the schedule issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), by-elections on six vacant Senate seats—one in Islamabad; two in Sindh; three in Balochistan—would be conducted tomorrow (Thursday). Gilani had earlier vacated the Islamabad seat after he became a MNA from Multan in the Feb. 8 election, but has now submitted nomination papers to contest the election again. If he is elected, he would resign his NA seat, triggering a by-election there.