PTI’s Senator Zafar says he has submitted a letter to Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani seeking the appointment
ISLAMABAD:
MWM chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas is expected to be officially notified as Senate Leader of Opposition on Tuesday (today), PTI Senator Ali Zafar said on Monday. The position has been vacant for the past five months.
Addressing the media in Parliament, Senator Zafar said he had sent a letter to Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani requesting the appointment of Abbas to the post.
According to the senator, Gilani had accepted the opposition’s demands and said that an announcement on Abbas’s appointment would also be made in Parliament.
Zafar later also wrote a post on X stating that he had a meeting with the Senate President regarding the appointment of the Leader of the Opposition.
“[The] the chairman informed me that he has approved the appointment and directed the secretariat to issue a formal notification,” Zafar said. He welcomed the decision and said the party would be able to convey its perspective in the Senate more effectively.
The positions of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and the National Assembly became vacant in August 2025 following the disqualification of Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub, who respectively served as Leaders of the Opposition in the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament.
An ATC had found the politicians guilty in a case of rioting on May 9, 2023. Later, the Election Commission of Pakistan had disqualified them as legislators.
The PTI had then nominated Abbas as its candidate for the Leader of the Opposition post in the Senate and Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai to fill the NA slot.
After a month-long delay, Achakzai was notified as the NA opposition leader last week.
In his letter to Gilani, Senator Zafar recalled that the PTI had “duly nominated Honorable Senator Raja Nasir Abbas for the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Pakistan”.
“The continued failure to appoint the Leader of the Opposition is not only contrary to the Rules of Procedure and the Rules of Procedure of the Senate, 2012, but is also contrary to well-established democratic traditions and parliamentary conventions.”
It added that “the opposition is an indispensable pillar of any democratic system. A house without a formally recognized leader of the opposition remains institutionally incomplete and its ability to perform its constitutional role of oversight, accountability and meaningful debate is seriously undermined”.
“Parliamentary democracy rests on the balance between the treasury and the opposition benches.
“Denial or delay in recognizing the duly appointed Leader of the Opposition weakens democratic norms, erodes the parliamentary order and creates an undesirable precedent incompatible with constitutional values and democratic practice.
“It is therefore once again respectfully requested that Senator Raja Nasir Abbas, in accordance with Rule 16(3) of the Rules and Procedures of the Senate, 2012, may be appointed as soon as possible as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Pakistan, in the greater interest of a well-functioning Parliament and this Parliamentary House,” it said.
