ISLAMABAD (ENN) Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) vice president senator Sherry Rehman has been appointed as the Leader of Opposition in the upper house (Senate) of Pakistan here on Thursday making her the first female to be given the post.
A notification was issued by the Senate Secretariat in this regard on the directives of the chairman. On March 14, the PPP nominated Rehman for the post of Senate opposition leader.
At the time, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had said in his tweet that the party was making history by nominating the first woman to lead the opposition in senate.
However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had nominated party leader Azam Swati for the position of opposition leader in Senate.
Rehman, journalist turned politician was elected to the national assembly in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008, and served as the federal minister for information and broadcasting.
She also served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States of America (2011-13) and was elected to the Senate in 2015.
Rehman has the reputation of taking position on human rights issues even beyond party lines and had remained close aide of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. She had resigned as federal information minister on the principals of media freedom.
PPP is the only party in Pakistan which has made different landmarks by bringing forward women as leaders as BB Shaheed was the first female prime minister of Pakistan, Dr Fahmida Mirza as speaker National Assembly and acting president of Pakistan.
PPP has many vocal female voices like Dr Nafisa Shah, Shazia Atta Marri, Shahla Raza twice deputy speaker in Sindh Assembly, Faryal Talpur, Dr Azra Pechoho, Sharmila Farooqi, Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto and many others women from elite to worker class. First female hindu senator Ratna Chawla and recently Kesho Koolhi belong to PPP.
