Voting for Senate chairman slot concludes

Voting for the coveted post of Senate chairman has concluded. The counting of the votes will begin at 5pm.

According to the presiding officer, 98 senators cast their votes to elect new Senate chairman. The crucial contest for the top Senate slots commenced after the presiding officer (PO) Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah administered the oath to the newly-elected senators earlier today.

After the administration of oath, the Senate session was adjourned till 3:00 pm due to Friday prayers while the election staff received the nomination papers of candidates for the chairmanship and deputy chairmanship till 12:00 noon. The scrutiny process of the nominations was completed by 12:30 pm.

Read: Newly-elected senators take oath

The presiding officer announced that the secrecy of votes will be maintained. He also summoned names of the polling agents from the candidates for the positions of Senate chairman and deputy chairman which would be submitted to the Upper House secretary.

The ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), fielded Sadiq Sanjrani and Mirza Muhammad Afridi for the coveted posts of Senate chairman and deputy chairman, respectively.

Whereas, the 11-party alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) nominated Senator-elect Yousuf Raza Gillani and JUI-F general secretary Ghafoor Haideri as joint candidates for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman slots, respectively.

Mohsin Aziz has been named as the polling agent from the side of Sadiq Sanjrani and Farooq H Naek from Yousaf Raza Gilani. Mirza Afridi named Hidayatullah as his polling agent, whereas, the PDM candidate for Senate deputy chairman, Abdul Ghafoor Haidery appointed Kamran Murtaza.

Read: PPP senator discovers ‘screw camera’ in Senate

The opposition alliance has a lead of three votes on the government and its allies in the 100-member House as the opposition has 53 senators, while the government and its allies have 47 members.

Senator Ishaq Dar won’t be able to cast his ballot.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which has one senator in the house, decided to abstain from voting in the elections for Senate chairman and deputy chairman.

Read: PTI emerges as largest party in Senate, but suffers setback in Islamabad

Following the announcement, the number of the opposition’s votes will be reduced to 51 while the number of the government senators has increased to 48 after independent senator Abdul Qadir joined the PTI.

Senate elections on vacant seats

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

The PTI–backed candidates had won 10 out of a total of 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.