PTI Senator Zafar says he has submitted a letter to Senate President Yousuf Raza Gilani seeking the appointment.
ISLAMABAD:
MWM chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas is expected to be officially notified as leader of the opposition in the Senate on Tuesday (today), PTI senator Ali Zafar said on Monday. The position has remained vacant for the past five months.
Speaking to the media in Parliament, Senator Zafar said he had submitted a letter to Senate President Yousuf Raza Gilani, requesting Abbas’ appointment to the post.
According to the senator, Gilani accepted the opposition’s demand and said that an announcement would also be made regarding Abbas’ appointment in the House.
Later, Zafar also wrote a post on X, stating that he had a meeting with the Senate President regarding the appointment of the opposition leader.
“[The] “The president informed me that he approved the appointment and directed the secretariat to issue a formal notification,” Zafar said. He welcomed the decision and said the party could convey its perspective in the Senate more effectively.
The positions of the opposition leader in the Senate and the National Assembly became vacant in August 2025, following the disqualification of Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub, who were respectively serving as opposition leaders in the upper and lower houses of parliament.
An ATC had found the politicians guilty in a May 9, 2023 riot case. The Election Commission of Pakistan later disqualified them as legislators.
The PTI had then nominated Abbas as its candidate for the post of opposition leader in the Senate and Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai for the NA post.
After a months-long delay, Achakzai was notified as NA opposition leader last week.
In his letter to Gilani, Senator Zafar recalled that the PTI had “duly appointed Honorable Senator Raja Nasir Abbas to the post of Leader of Opposition in the Senate of Pakistan.”
“The continued failure to appoint the leader of the opposition is not only inconsistent with the 2012 Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, but also flies in the face of well-established democratic traditions and parliamentary conventions.”
He added that “the opposition is an indispensable pillar of any democratic system. A chamber without a formally recognized opposition leader remains institutionally incomplete, and its ability to perform its constitutional role of oversight, accountability and meaningful debate is severely undermined.”
“Parliamentary democracy is based on the balance between the Treasury and opposition seats.
“The denial or delay in recognition of the duly appointed opposition leader weakens democratic norms, erodes parliamentary decorum and sets an undesirable precedent incompatible with constitutional values and democratic practice.
“Therefore, it is once again respectfully requested that in accordance with Rule 16(3) of the Senate Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business, 2012, Senator Raja Nasir Abbas be kindly appointed as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Pakistan at the earliest, in the larger interest of parliamentary democracy and proper functioning of this august House,” he said.
