Coalition sweeps polls on 19 Senate seats

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The ruling coalition on Tuesday swept the elections held on 19 Senate seats while polls were postponed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the dispute pertaining to swearing-in opposition members elected to reserved seats.

Out of the 19 seats up for grabs on Tuesday, the PML-N won six seats, the PPP won 11 while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) bagged one seat, unofficial results showed. The PML-N’s numbers in the 96-member House have now risen to 19 while the PPP’s have risen to 24. It should be noted that the PTI has 20 members in the Senate.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) 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 seven NA lawmakers were rejected.

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.

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.

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. Interestingly, the polls were scheduled to be held in the KP 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.

The polling was scheduled to be conducted to elect 48 senators, initially, 11 each from KP and Balochistan, 12 each from Punjab and Sindh, and two from Islamabad. However, after the unopposed election of 18 senators from Punjab and Balochistan and the postponement of polls in KP, the elections were held for 19 vacant seats.