The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has taken the lead in the Senate polls with 11 seats, while Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) clinched six seats.
The Muttahida Qaudmi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) secured and an independent candidate Faisal Vawda secured one seat each.
The polling for the 19 vacant seats was held in the National, Punjab, and Sindh assemblies while elections on 11 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s seats were postponed by the Election Commission over the “denial” of oath-taking to the lawmakers elected on reserved seats.
Overall 356 lawmakers cast their votes in the upper house of parliament’s elections, whereas, votes of five NA lawmakers were rejected.
Sindh
So far, the ruling party in Sindh — the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — managed to win 10 Senate seats from the province, whereas, each Senate seat was won by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and an independent candidate.
On the general seat, Ashraf Ali Jatoi, Dost Ali Jessar, Kazim Ali Shah, Masroor Ahsan, and Nadeem Bhutto have been declared victors, as per preliminary results.
MQM-P’s Amir Chishti has been elected senator on a general seat while independent candidate Faisal Vawda also won the general seat in the Senate.
PPP leaders Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani and Quratulain Marri were elected on women’s seat while another PPP candidate Punjho Mil Bhail won a reserved seat for minority.
PPP’s Sarmad Ali and Zamir Ghumro won technocrat seats.
In Sindh Assembly, the provincial election commissioner Sharif Ullah announced the results of the Senate polls.
Punjab
In Punjab, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb grabbed victory in the upper house polls on technocrat seats after securing 128 votes. PML-N leader and Federal Minister for Energy Musadik Malik also won a technocrat seat after securing 121 votes.
PML-N’s Anusha Rahman and Bushra Anjum Butt have been declared victors on women’s seats, while PML-N’s Tahir Khalil Sindhu has been elected on a minority seat.
Islamabad
In the federal capital, the ruling alliance candidates won two seats.
PML-N leader and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar clinched the technocrat seat, while PPP candidate Mahmood ul Hassan was elected to the upper house of parliament after winning general seat.
Earlier, lawmakers in all three legislatures were given time to cast their vote from 9am till 4pm.
It was highly likely that the ruling alliance at the Centre — comprising PML-N, PPP, MQM-P and other smaller parties — are set to gain a two-thirds majority in the upper house of parliament.
Interestingly, the polls were scheduled to be held in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly but they were postponed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after the Opposition members filed a plea seeking postponement due to a stand-off with the provincial government over oath-taking of MPAs-elect on the reserved seats.
‘Electoral College is incomplete’: ECP
In its notification, the ECP stated that polls for the Senate seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will not be held until the administration of oath to the elected members against the reserved seats.
“The Commission in exercise of powers under Article 218(3) of the Constitution read with Section 4(1), Section 8(c) and Section 128 of the Elections Act, 2017 and all other enabling provisions of the Constitution and law in this behalf, postpones the poll to the Senate Election to the extent of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa till the administration of oath to the elected members against the reserved seats and accordingly makes necessary amendment in the notification issued under Section 107 of the Act. Office is directed to take follow up action,” the notification read.
The document further maintained that the KP Assembly speaker was approached by the notified members for the reserved seats for administration of oath to them, however, “no arrangement for oath was made”.
“AND WHEREAS, the Returning Officer for Senate Election to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has informed vide letter No. F.1(26/2024-Els (PEC) dated 2” April 2024 along with written request of the elected and notified members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly against the reserved seats that the Speaker Provincial Assembly has not arranged oath.”
KP Opposition requests ECP to postpone Senate polls
Before the ECP issued its notification regarding the postponement, the Opposition members submitted an application to the provincial election commissioner for postponing the Senate elections.
Arrangements for polls were complete in the KP assembly with the Commission’s staff present to conduct polls.
However, Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Ahmad Karim Kundi, in the plea, said 25 of his party’s members have not yet been sworn in and requested that the polls be postponed.
Upon the Opposition’s request, the provincial election commissioner has contacted Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja in this regard, sources told Geo News.
Instead of complying with the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) recent order to administer the oath to the legislators-elect, KP Speaker Babar Saleem Swati filed a review petition with the court on the eve of the polling.
