ISLAMABAD: Federal government has approached over 20 lawmakers from the opposition parties to seek support from them in the upcoming Senate elections, ARY NEWS reported quoting sources.
According to sources privy to the matter, the government has reached out to over 20 lawmakers hailing from the opposition benches and sought their support for the upcoming polls.
“The members who have been approached belong to PPP, PML-N and Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal),” they said adding that the government sources claimed that they would successfully get support from 20 to 25 opposition lawmakers in the upcoming Senate elections.
It is pertinent to mention here that Senators have been elected unopposed from the Punjab province while efforts were also underway to elect Senators unopposed from KP ahead of the polling on March 3.
Earlier in the day, the ruling political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and opposition parties held talks for holding ‘unopposed’ Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) just like in Punjab.
The provincial ministers of the ruling PTI in KP have contacted parliamentary leaders of the opposition parties including Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), sources told ARY News.
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They mulled over implementing the formula of proportional representation of the political parties in the Senate. Sources added that PTI offered to give two general seats to the opposition in the Senate.
Shaukat Yousafzai confirmed that the opposition leaders have been contacted to hold unopposed Senate polls. He said that Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) are creating hurdles to hold unopposed Upper House polls.
