ECP readying for Senate polls proposed for February, sources say

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission Pakistan has been reportedly advised to prepare for approaching Senate Pakistan elections as the term for half the senators is set to superannuate, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Election Commission has started preparing for the elections whose date has not yet been finalized but the soonest possible time can be in February next year, the sources told ARY News. It said soon the preparations will be completed.

According to the common practice, elections take place week before the outgoing senators’ terms end, sources said, adding that even ECP so likes, it can hold the elections even a month before the term-end.

The proposed election dates are 12- to 15 February, the sources have shared and intimated that with opposition’s en masse resignations being discussed in the media, ECP may face a dilemma.

With resignations taking place, the election commission is responsible to conduct elections. With interim elections if resignation drive does eventuate, new senator-elects will be in the senate for March 13, sources said and added that in that interim period, the Senate will have to conduct elections for 6-year terms.

It may be noted that by March 12, 2021, 52 senators will have retired from the Senate ending their 6-year term in the upper house of the parliament with senior opposition senators giving up their strength.

READ: ‘All PPP MPAs in Sindh Assembly submit resignations to leadership’

Separately today, it was reported that all 96 members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the Sindh Assembly have submitted their resignations to the leadership, ARY NEWS reported quoting the party’s Sindh chapter President Nisar Ahmed Khuhro.

Speaking to media in Hyderabad, Nisar Khuhro said that the resignations would bring political turmoil. “We are demanding early polls in the country,” he said but added that they would not support any undemocratic move.