ISLAMABAD: The polling for 52 Senate seats among as many as 131 candidates from all the four provinces, the federal capital and Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata), for the upper house of the Pakistan’s parliament has come to an end, ARY News reported on Saturday.
The voting began at 9:00 am in the morning and remained continued till 4:00 pm without an interruption.
Members of the provincial assemblies and the National Assembly have cast their ballots to elect senators on the seats which are going to fall vacant on March 11.
Polling stations were set up in the Parliament House Islamabad and all the four provincial assemblies.
Special security arrangements were made outside all the polling stations to avoid any untoward incident.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi cast his vote at parliament house for two Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) seats.
National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was the first to cast his vote. Out of 342, more than 150 members of the National Assembly have cast their votes so far. PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Shafqat Mahmood have also cast their votes.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb cast her vote in the National Assembly.
Speaking to the media, she claimed the PML-N will secure most of the Senate seats. She said former premier Nawaz Sharif would win the Senate election.
In fact, she added, he would win every election that will take place in the country with the blessings of Allah and support of the people.
Whoever will abandon him would destroy their political careers, she said.
More than 30 votes have been cast in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly for eleven Senate seats.
Over 30 lawmakers have cast their votes in the Sindh Assembly for twelve seats in the upper house of parliament.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Sindh chapter leader Arbab Ghulam Rahim said the ruling party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and PML-F have agreed on consensus candidates in the Senate elections in Sindh.
In Baluchistan, over 50 out of 64 lawmakers have cast their votes so far. Baluchistan Chief Minister Abdul Quddos Bizenjo also cast his vote.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah cast their votes at the Punjab Assembly for twelve Senate seats from the province.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan has decided not to extend polling time. It said the balloting for Senate seats would end at 4:00pm. The voters who will be inside polling stations at the closing time would be allowed to cast their votes.
ECP secretary Babar Yaqoob said voting for the Senate elections began on the dot, adding that the electoral body hasn’t received any sort of complaint from any province as yet.
Here’s how Pakistan elects its Senate members
There are 20 candidates in the run for Punjab’s 12 seats, 33 candidates are contesting for 12 seats from Sindh, 26 candidates are in the race for 11 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 23 for 11 seats of Baluchistan, 24 for Fata’s four seats and five candidates are in the field for Islamabad’s two seats.
The Election Commission of Pakistan, in a review meeting, took several decisions to ensure vote privacy during the elections.
The Commission decided that returning officers will ensure that no voter exposes his vote’s privacy and neither be allowed to take issued ballot paper outside the polling station and in case of non-compliance the returning officer will cancel the ballot paper of such persons.
It was also decided that all returning officers will have powers of full magistrate and they can suspend the electoral process by bringing such elements to ECP’s notice in case of irregularity.
The 52 Senators are retiring on March 11.
Prominent among those who are retiring include Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Leader of the Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan, Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Farhatullah Babar, Azam Swati, Kamran Michael, Shahi Syed, Kamil Ali Agha, Talha Mehmood, Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Nasreen Jalil and Ilyas Bilour.
Eighteen of the 52 retiring senators belong to the Pakistan People Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P), nine to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), five are from the Awami National Party (ANP), four each belong to Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), three to Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), two to Balochistan National Party-A (BNP-A), and one each to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F). Five independents are also set to complete their tenure, according to the Senate website.
The PML-Q will have no representation in the house after this month as all its four senators will retire.
The senators from Punjab who are retiring are: M. Hamza (PML-N), Kamil Ali Agha (PML-Q), Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari (independent), Muhammad Zafarullah Khan Dhandla (PML-N), Saud Majeed (PML-N) in place of Malik Rafique Rajwana, Sardar Zulfikar Khosa (PML-N), Asif Saeed Kirmani (PML-N) in place of Dr Babar Awan, Aitzaz Ahsan (PPP-P), Mohammad Ishaq Dar (PML-N), Khalida Parveen (PPP-P), Nuzhat Sadiq (PML-N) and Kamran Micheal (PML-N).
