Sanjrani elected as Chairman, Mirza Afridi elected as Deputy Chairman Senate
News Desk:
ISLAMABAD: Sadiq Sanjrani elected as the Chairman Senate of Pakistan on Friday evening. However, Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi elected as the Deputy Chairman Senate. Senator Afridi got 54 votes and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Hyderi got 44 votes during the elections.
Incumbent Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani was re-elected as chair of the upper house on Friday after defeating former premier and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani.
From the upper house, 98 senators exercised their right to vote today. With a total of eight votes rejected, Gilani received 42 valid votes, while Sanjrani won the election after bagging 48 votes. In total, 98 senators voted in the election.
During the first half of the day’s session, the upper house swore in 48-newly elected senators. Senator Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah was nominated as the presiding officer by President Arif Alvi and was administered the oath.
Installation of spy cameras inside polling booth caused outrage in the upper house on the eve of chairman Senate election on Friday. Senators are set to elect a new chairman of the Senate today. The ruling coalition has fielded Sadiq Sanjrani as its candidate whereas, the Pakistan Democratic Movement has backed Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani for the slot of chairman Senate.
Raza Rabbani, the central opposition leader termed the installation of secret cameras as a clear violation of article 226 of the Constitution.
The protest prompted the presiding officer to issue directives for changing the polling booth. “The current polling booth should be removed, another should be set up afresh,” he said.
Earlier in the day, PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar claimed that he and PML-N Senator Musadiq Malik found “spy cameras” above the polling booth. 
Meanwhile, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry responded to Khokhar’s tweet, stating that it looked “more like a CCTV cable” and that “spy cameras are far more sophisticated”.
The Senate secretary should look into this claim, he said.
Govt vows to expose the opposition
Speaking at a press conference, Information Minister Shibli Faraz vowed to investigate the incident and “expose” the opposition.
Many Senate officers were appointed during the tenure of the opposition parties, he said. “They have been doing this for a long time; this is evident from the video of Ali Gilani teaching MNAs how to waste votes,” he said.
He said that the PTI’s stance has always been clear and is in front of the people. “We have always wanted corruption to be removed and open voting to come into play.”
He maintained that a new polling booth should be set up, adding that the opposition had conspired to install the cameras. The minister stated that if the government wished to make such moves, it would have done so during the Senate polls.
Sanjrani elected as Chairman, Mirza Afridi elected as Deputy Chairman Senate
