ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) emerged as the front-runner in the Senate polls on Tuesday, securing 11 seats, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secured six seats.
Muttahida Qaudmi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) and an independent candidate Faisal Vawda each secured one seat.
The voting for the 19 vacant seats took place in the National, Punjab, and Sindh assemblies, with elections for 11 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seats postponed by the Election Commission due to a dispute over the oath-taking process for elected lawmakers.
A total of 356 lawmakers participated in the upper house of parliament’s elections, with seven votes from the National Assembly rejected.
Sindh:
In Sindh, the PPP secured 10 Senate seats, while MQM-P and an independent candidate won one each. Ashraf Ali Jatoi, Dost Ali Jessar, Kazim Ali Shah, Masroor Ahsan, and Nadeem Bhutto emerged as winners on general seats.
Punjab:
In Punjab, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb won a technocrat seat with 128 votes, and PML-N leader Musadik Malik secured another technocrat seat with 121 votes.
Islamabad:
In Islamabad, the ruling alliance candidates secured two seats, with PML-N’s Ishaq Dar winning the technocrat seat and PPP’s Mahmood ul Hassan securing the general seat.
The polling took place from 9 am to 4 pm in all three legislatures. The KP Assembly’s polls were postponed by the Election Commission following a plea from opposition members due to a disagreement with the provincial government over the oath-taking process for MPs-elect on reserved seats.
Initially, elections were scheduled for 48 senators, with 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, elections were held for 19 vacant seats.
(Islamabad_Newsdesk)
