Upper house polls: PTI emerges as largest party in Senate, but suffers setback in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: As the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the 18 seats in Senate elections 2021 on Wednesday after having suffered a major setback in Islamabad, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) backed candidate Yousuf Raza Gilani pulled off a surprise win on Senate seat from Islamabad.

The PTI–backed candidates won 10 out of total 12 seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), five from Punjab (unopposed), two from Sindh, and one Senate seat from Islamabad, according to un0fficial results.

As per unofficial results, the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), which is an ally of ruling PTI won six Senate seats. Muttahida Qaumi Movement–Pakistan (MQM-P) secured victory on 2 Senate seats from Sindh Assembly.

Similarly, Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) has won eight Senate seats, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) five, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) secured three seats, Awami National Party (ANP) 2, BNP-Mengal one, PML-Q 1, whereas, two Senate seats were won by independent candidates, unofficial results show.

The PTI’s tally in the Senate now stands at 25. After eight seats, PPP’s total seats in the upper house stands at 21, PML-N 18, BAP has now a total of 12 seats in Senate, JUI-F five and MQM-P three.

Break down of results

National Assembly

In a major upset, former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani emerged victorious against the ruling party’s Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

Gilani secured 169 votes, while his opponent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI’s) Hafeez Sheikh got 164 votes. According to ECP, seven votes were rejected in a one-on-one contest between PDM and PTI on the general seat of the National Assembly.

Woman seat

On the woman seat from Islamabad, PTI’s Fauzia Arshad secured 174 votes, while opposition alliance candidate Farzana Kausar got 164 votes.

Balochistan Assembly complete results 

According to unofficial results, in Balochistan, Manzoor Ahmed Kakar, Sarfraz Bugti and Prince Ahmed Umer Ahmedzai of Balochistan Awami Party, Muhammad Qasim of Balochistan National Party, Moulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), Umer Farooq of Awami National Party, Muhammad Abdul Qadir Independent on General Seats have been declared the winner.

Likewise, Saeed Ahmed Hashmi of Balochistan Awami Party and Kamran Murtaza of JUI (F) have won on Technocrats/Ulema seats.

General seats

• Sarfaraz Bugti — BAP 
• Manzoor Ahmed Kakar – BAP
• Prince Ahmed Umer Ahmedzai — BAP 
• Arbab Muhammad Umar Farooq – ANP
• Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri — JUI-F
• Muhammad Qasim — BNP
• Abdul Qadir Independent

Technocrat seats

• Saeed Hashmi – BAP
• Kamran Murtaza -JUI-F

Women seats

• Samina Mumtaz – BAP
• Nasima Ahsan – Indpendent

Minority seat

• Danesh Kumar – BAP

ANP’s Arbab Muhammad Umar Farooq, and BAP’s Ahmed Kakar, Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti and Price Ahmed Umar Ahmed were the candidates supported by the government on general seat.

Sindh Assembly complete Senate results

In the Sindh Assembly, 167 out of 168 members cast their votes as Jamaat-e-Islami member Abdul Rashid did not cast his vote.

MQM’s candidate for a women’s seat Khalida Ateeb won with 57 votes, while PPP’s Palwasha Khan also won with 60 votes.

General seats

• Saleem Mandviwala­ — PPP 
• Sherry Rehman – PPP 
• Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar – PPP 
• Taj Haider – PPP 
• Shahadat Awan – PPP 
• Faisal Vawda – PTI
• Faisal Sabzwari – MQM-Pakistan 

Women seats

• Palwasha Khan — PPP 
• Khalida Ateeb — MQM-P

Technocrat seats

• Farooq H. Naik – PPP 
• Saifullah Abro – PTI

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won a total of seven senate seats from Sindh Assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) two seats, and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) also managed to get two Senate seats.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly complete results

Gurdeep Singh of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf has won the minority seat of Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by securing 103 votes. His rival Ranjeet Singh of JUI(F) secured 25 votes.

On women’s seats, Sania Nishtar and Falak Naz of PTI won both their women seats of Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

General seats

• Shibli Faraz – PTI
• Liaquat Turkai – PTI 
• Mohsin Aziz ¬ PTI 
• Faisal Saleem – PTI
• Zeeshan Khanzada – PTI
• Atta-ur-Rehman JUI-F 
• Hidayat Ullah – ANP

Women seats

• Falak Naz — PTI 
• Sania Nishtar — PTI

Technocrat seats

• Dost Muhammad ¬– PTI
• Dr Muhammad Humaiyun – PTI

Minority seat

• Gurdeep Singh – PTI

Punjab Assembly Senate results

In Punjab, all the candidates for three categories — seven general and two seats each reserved for women and technocrats — were elected unopposed last week.

The Senators elected unopposed in Punjab included five from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), five from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and one from the PML-Quaid-e-Azam.

Those elected unopposed in Punjab are Kamil Agha, Saifullah Nyazee, Afnanullah Khan, Aon Abbas, Ejaz Chaudhry, Sajid Mir and Irfanul Haq Siddiqui on general seats; Azam Tarar and Syed Ali Zafar on the technocrat seats and Zarqa Suharwardy and Saadia Abbasi on the women seats.

Senate elections 2021 seats party wise

• PTI 18
• PPP 8
• BAP 6
• PML-N 5
• MQM-P 2
• ANP-2
• JUI-F 3
• Independent 2
• BNP-1
• PML-Q 1

The PTI’s tally in the Senate now stands at 25. After eight seats, PPP’s total seats in Senate stands at 21, PML-N 18, BAP has now a total of 12 seats in Upper House, JUI-F five and MQM-P three.

These all results are unofficial as the final announcement will be made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Voting begins

A total of 78 candidates contested the 2021 Senate polls from the federal capital and the three provinces.

The voting process began at 9 am and continued till 5:00 pm.

Shafiq Arain of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was the first lawmaker who cast his vote in the Senate elections followed by PTI’s Faisal Vawda.

Earlier, Returning Officer (RO) issued directives to the lawmakers to cast votes for the candidates using digits on the ballot papers. The ballot paper will be considered as rejected one if a lawmaker writes in double digits.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) barred all including voters, candidates and polling agents to carry mobile phones or camera in the Parliament House, whereas, the NA lawmakers will have to show the card issued from the assembly for getting ballot papers.