K-P Senate vote brings no surprises

Express Tribune

7 days ago

A lawmaker casts his vote during the Senate elections at the K-P Assembly on Monday. Polling was held for seven general seats, two reserved for women, and two for technocrats, including Ulema. PHOTO: PPI
The Senate election in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly sprang no surprise on Monday as a prior understanding between the government and the opposition parties held firm, resulting in the victory of all consensus candidates, according to unofficial results
The K-P Assembly voted for 11 vacant seats in the upper house of parliament from the province. Originally scheduled for March 2024, the elections were delayed due to a dispute over the allocation of reserved seats, which was ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court last month.
Among those who cast their ballots were 25 newly sworn-in lawmakers on reserved seats. They had taken oath a day earlier at the Governor House after a scheduled assembly session was adjourned due to lack of quorum.
Ahead of the polls, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) reached a seat-sharing arrangement with opposition parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), to avoid a contested election.
As part of the deal, the government agreed to allocate five of the 11 seats to the opposition. However, some K-P PTI-backed candidates running independently initially refused to withdraw. While most pulled out by Sunday night, one PTI hopeful, Khurram Zeeshan, remained in the race but received no votes.
According to the unofficial results announced by the Provincial Election Commission, PTI's Murad Saeed received the highest 26 votes, followed by Faisal Javed, who secured 22 votes. PTI's Mirza Afridi – former Senate deputy chairman – and Pir Noorul Haq Qadri polled 21 votes each.
From the opposition, Maulana Attaul Haq Darwesh of the JUI-F, Niaz Ahmed of PML-N and Talha Mahmood of the PPP were elected. Ahmed, son of PML-N leader Amir Muqam, bagged 18 votes each, while Talha Mahmood secured 17 votes.
On technocrats and women seats, PTI's Azam Swati and Rubina Naz were elected. Both secured 89 votes each. From the opposition side, Dilawar Khan of the JUI-F was elected on technocrats' seat with 54 votes while Rubina Khalid of the PPP was elected on women's seat with 52 votes.
The results were in accordance with the understanding reached earlier this month between the government and the opposition. Under the deal, the government received four general seats, one technocrat and one woman seats, and the opposition got three general seats, one technocrat and one woman seats.
Earlier, the polling started at 11am instead of the scheduled 9am. The voting process was presided over by the provincial election commissioner. One treasury member did not participate in the voting. As a result, the ballots were cast by 144 out of 145 lawmakers.
The polling process went on smoothly. The voting time was extended by one and half hours. The first vote was cast by JUI-F's Malik Adnan, while Chief Minister Gandapur was the last to cast the vote. Soon after the results were announced, there was jubilation among the respective party workers.
Punjab by-polls
A PML-N candidate, Hafiz Abdul Karim, won the Senate election in the Punjab Assembly, defeating Abdul Sattar of the opposition PTI, according to unofficial result announced by the provincial election authorities.
The by-election was held to fill one vacant seat in the Senate from Punjab. During the voting 345 lawmakers cast their ballots. Hafiz Abdul Karim secured 243 votes while his rival, Abdul Sattar was polled 99 votes. Three votes were rejected.