Senate election 2018: PML-N gains control of upper house

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has emerged as the majority party in the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament with 33 seats after clinching 15 more  in Saturday’s Senate election, ARY News reported on Sunday. 

The overall strength of PML-N in Senate has increased to 33 after securing 15 seats, closely followed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) with 20 seats, according to official results.

PML-N could easily get the top slot of Senate chairman with the support of its allies and some independent candidates.

Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) emerged as the third largest party in the upper house of the parliament with 12 seats.

Checkout the latest update of Pakistan Elections 2018

PML-N-backed independent candidates secured 11 out of 12 seats from the Punjab, bagged another two seats from federal capital and two more from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

[bs-quote quote=”PMLN is now the single largest party in Senate as well, Masha’Allah” style=”default” align=”center” author_name=”Maryam Nawaz” author_job=”PML-N Leader” author_avatar=”https://arynews.tv/en/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/maryam_quote.jpg”][/bs-quote]

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won 12 seats in total with 10 from Sindh province, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) managed to win a total of six seats.

PML-N backed independent candidate Mushahid Hussain Syed secured 223 votes for Senate’s technocrat seat from the federal capital against Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) candidate Raja Shakeel, who bagged 68 votes from the members of National Assembly.

Asad Junejo, having backing of PML-N, won the second seat for Islamabad after receiving 214 votes against 32 votes to Imran Ashraf and Kanwal Shozab respectively.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had declared the PML-N Senate candidates as independent in the aftermath of the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s ruling over the petitions challenging the Election Act 2017, which removed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as the party president.

FATA

FATA Ittehad have secured all four seats of the tribal region in the Senate polls, unofficial results said.

The winning candidates were Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Hidayatullah, Shamim Afridi and Hilal-ur-Rehman.

The victorious candidates received seven votes each.

Punjab

PML-N backed independent candidates won 11 out of 12 seats from Punjab while PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar managed to secure a single seat.

PML-N backed candidates Dr. Asif Kirmani, Dr. Musaddiq Malik, Haroon Akhtar, Rana Maqbool, Shaheen Butt and Zubair Gul won general seats.

Ishaq Dar and Hafiz Abdul Karim won two technocrat seats while Saadia Abbasi and Nuzhat Sadiq secured seats reserved for women.

Sindh

Meanwhile in Sindh, 10 candidates of Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) were elected to the Parliament’s Upper House.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P)  factions could only manage to win a single seat despite a last minute reconciliation between rival factions led by Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Farooq Sattar as Farogh Nasim won on a general seat.

Out of the 12 total seats, 10 went to the ruling PPP while Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) candidate Muzaffar Shah and MQM-P’s Farogh Nasim won the two other seats.

Balochistan

In Balochistan, mostly independent candidates won on 11 Senate seats.

Anwar-ul- Haq Kakar, Ahmed Khan, Sadiq Sanjri , Kauda Babar Askani and Sardar Shafiq Tareen. Muhammad Akram of National Party and Molvi Faiz Muhammad of JUI (F) have also been declared as successful candidates.

Similarly, Tahir Bizenjo  won the election from the platform of National Party while Naseebullah Bazai has won the election in independent capacity.

Likewise, Sana Jamali won her seat in an independent capacity while another woman candidate Abida Muhammad Azeem of Pakhtoon Kuwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) has also been elected for the senate.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) bagged five seats from KP. The party won three general seats and one each in the woman and technocrat category.

PPP won two seats with Bahramand Tangi on General and Robina Khalid on women seats.

PML-N backed Independent candidates Pir Sabir Shah succeeded on General while Dilawar Khan won on technocrat seat.

PTI-backed cleric Samiul Haq of Darul Uloom Haqqani could bag only three votes.

Polling for the 52 seats in Senate concluded in the national and provincial assemblies at 4pm on Saturday.

Elections to the Senate were held in accordance with Article 59 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

This year, 52 senators are slated to retire. The other 52 were elected in 2015 and will retire in 2021.

Out of the 52 Senate seats vacated, 46 were to be filled by the four provincial assemblies, two by the National Assembly, and four by lawmakers representing FATA.