The Senate’s Standing Committee on Finance on Tuesday elected PPP’s Saleem Mandviwalla as its chairman as the senators, belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Shibli Faraz and Mohsin Aziz, abstained, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Later talking to the media, Shibli said that the standing committee chairman had always been from the opposition. “It is for the first time that voting is being held for the seat,” he said, adding, “If voting is to be held, then the practice should be followed by other committees as well.”

If the PPP was in the opposition, he went on to say, then it should sit with us and avoid playing games with the PTI.  

Reacting to the PTI’s decision, Mandviwalla said that the election was held last year too, and even then the committee members had requested the party’s senators to cast their votes.

The newly elected chairman said that the committee affairs had always been run with consensus, and not on party lines.  

Reporter: Waqas Azeem