Speaker Bizenjo demands postponing elections on Senate's vacant seat

ISLAMABAD: Speaker Balochistan Assembly Abdul Quddus Bizenjo has demanded postponing Senate elections on the vacant seat of Senator Kalsoom Parveen due to the spread of coronavirus pandemic during its second wave, ARY News reported on Monday.

Speaker Balochistan Assembly Abdul Quddus Bizenjo wrote a letter to Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raza to demand postponing elections of the Senate’s seat which went vacant after the death of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz’s Senator Kalsoom Parveen due to coronavirus.

Bizenjo in his letter said how the polls for electing a new senator can be organised within 10 days.

Read: Cannot hold Senate elections before February 10, says ECP

It stated that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued a schedule to hold elections on vacant seat of Senate on January 14.

The tenure of Kalsoom Parveen Late is ending on March 11 and the next polls of the Upper House are already scheduled in February 2021, it read.

The speaker said that it is impossible to make arrangements for the polls during this period due to coronavirus pandemic. He demanded ECP for reviewing the schedule of elections and urged to hold polls once on the vacant seat instead to organising the election twice in a short period of time.

Read: ECP issues schedule for by-election in Sindh, Balochistan

The Senate chairman forwarded the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Earlier on December 21, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Senator Kalsoom Parveen had lost her life while battling against the novel coronavirus. According to the Senate Secretariat, the lawmaker had breathed her last at a private hospital in Islamabad due to coronavirus-related infections.

The election commission had issued a schedule for organising elections on the vacant seat on January 14.