Senate Elections: Ishaq Dar, Aurangzeb, Mossadegh, Vawda successful

Important news related to Senate elections

• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senate election postponed.
• PTI will not allow illegally elected members to take oath: Ali Amin Gandapur.

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April 2, 5:45 PM

Sindh Assembly: Out of 12 seats, 10 PPP, one MQM and one independent candidate won

Out of 12 Senate seats in Sindh Assembly, 10 candidates of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), one candidate of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Pakistan and one independent candidate won.

According to the spokesperson of the Sindh Election Commission, voting continued uninterruptedly from 9 am to 4 pm for the 12 seats of the Senate in the Sindh Assembly.

Members of Jamaat-e-Islami and Sunni Ittehad Council did not come to cast their votes. Apart from this, three members of the Sindh Assembly of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) have not yet taken their oath, so they could not cast their votes.

According to the results, five members of Pakistan People’s Party were declared successful on seven general seats, including Ashraf Ali Jatoi, Dost Ali Jaisar, Kazim Ali Shah, Masroor Ahsan and Nadeem Bhutto Sham.

Amir Chishti of MQM-Pakistan was elected as a senator on the general seat and independent candidate Faisal Vawda was also elected as a senator from the Sindh Assembly.

PPP candidates Rubina Qaim Khani and Qaratul-Ain Marri won two seats for women, Poonjumal Bhil of PPP also won one minority seat.

PPP candidates Sarmad Ali and Zameer Ghamro were also elected as senators for two technocrat seats in the Senate from Sindh.

19 candidates participated for 12 Senate seats from Sindh.

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April 2, 5:10 PM

Punjab Assembly: Muhammad Aurangzeb and Mossadegh Malik elected, Yasmin Rashid defeated

Muhammad Aurangzeb and Mossadegh Malik of PML-N have been declared successful on the Senate technocrat seat in Punjab Assembly. Muhammad Aurangzeb got 128 votes and Mossad Malik got 121 votes.

Dr. Yasmin Rashid got 106 votes and could not succeed.

In women’s seats, PML-N’s Anusha Rehman and Bushra Butt won with 125 and 123 votes respectively, while Sunni Ittehad Council’s Sanam Javed Khan got 102 votes and failed.

On the minority seat, Khalil Tahir Sindhu of PML-N was declared successful by getting 253 votes.

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April 2, 4:45 PM

Ishaq Dar, Rana Mahmood-ul-Hasan elected

After the polling time for the Senate elections in the National Assembly, the counting has started and according to Independent Urdu representative Qaratul Ain Shirazi in the House, Ishaq Dar of the Muslim League-N has been elected senator on the Technocrat seat by getting 222 votes. While Ansar Kayani of Sunni Unity Council got 81 votes.

On the other hand, Rana Mehmoodul Hasan of Pakistan People’s Party has also been elected senator by getting 224 votes on the general seat, while son Ali Shah of Sunni Unity Council has got 79 votes.

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The process of polling for the election of senators for the 30 seats of the upper house of Pakistan i.e. the Senate has been completed, after which the counting is going on.

A total of 59 candidates have entered the fray in the Senate elections.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has already released the list of 18 candidates who were elected uncontested on the vacant seats of Balochistan and Punjab.

Polling was held today for the remaining 30 seats of the National Assembly, Punjab and Sindh Provincial Assemblies.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had finalized all the preparations for the Senate elections last day.

Polling in the National Assembly and two provincial assemblies began at nine in the morning and will end at four in the afternoon.

Ballot papers have also been printed in four different colors for the Senate elections.

According to Radio Pakistan, white paper will be used for general seats, green for technocrat seats, pink for women and yellow for minority seats.

Elected for six-year terms, Pakistani senators debate and vote on laws like other public representatives.

However, half of the senators retire every three years and new senators are elected in their place.

The Senate of Pakistan consists of 100 members, out of which 52 have retired this month while elections are to be held on 48 vacant seats.

Out of the 52 vacant seats, 48 ​​are going to polls this month as the four seats reserved for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have already lapsed after the merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Elections are usually held a few days before the end of senators’ terms, but were delayed due to the Election Commission’s failure to hold general elections on time.

According to the press release issued on the Election Commission website, 147 candidates have submitted nomination papers for 48 vacant seats.

Senate election postponed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Shamshad Khan, the returning officer of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and provincial election commissioner, has announced that the Senate elections in the province have been postponed.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur while talking to the media after the postponement of the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said in clear words that he will not allow the illegally formed members to take oath.

He said that specific seats have been given to the opposition parties unconstitutionally and we will fight against them.

Regarding the non-starting of the Senate election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this morning, Election Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spokesperson Muhammad Sohail told Independent Urdu that ‘we are waiting because the higher officers had to make a decision.’

He said that the election staff of the Election Commission were present in the assembly and were waiting for a while and later the election was postponed for a second by the returning officer.

The Election Commission yesterday made the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa subject to the oath-taking of the successful candidates for certain Assembly seats.

In this regard, a case is also under hearing in the Peshawar High Court today.

Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has filed a petition in the court against the Election Commission making the Senate elections subject to the oath taking of the successful candidates for certain seats.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s boycott of Senate elections in Sindh

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the opposition party in the provinces and the federation, announced on March 31, during a press conference at Insaaf House Karachi, that it would not participate in the Senate elections from Sindh.

Leader of Tehreek-e-Insaf Sindh Haleem Adil Shaikh said that ‘Senate election is being won by stealth, six candidates of PTI from Sindh were in the field for Senate election but now they are not participating in the elections.

The number of PTI members in the Sindh Assembly is nine and there are seven general seats. 21 or 23 votes are required for one seat and PTI’s allies are not present in Sindh Assembly, so apparently this number cannot benefit anyone.

11 of People’s Party, Farhan Chishti of Muttahida Qaumi Movement and one Faisal Vawda, these are 13 members in total.

What is the Senate election formula?

To elect a senator from any provincial assembly, the total votes cast in that assembly are divided by the seven general assembly seats of the senate.

For example, the total number of members in the Punjab Assembly is 371 and if each member casts a vote, then the total votes cast i.e. 371 will be divided by seven, thus the number is 53.

Similarly, by dividing the total votes cast members of Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly by seven general seats, the proportion of votes for Senate on seven general seats in the province can be calculated and the same formula for women and minority seats. Applies.

For example, for two women seats in Punjab, the total voting members are divided by two.

If the candidate fails to obtain that ‘Golden Number’, then the candidate contesting for any seat, even if he gets the highest number of preference votes among all the candidates for that seat, will be declared successful.

If a candidate receives more than the golden number, his votes are transferred to the next preferred candidate. If the second candidate also gets the same number, the process will continue and so on until the required number of senators is reached.

In Senate elections, members are given a priority list which is on the ballot paper without electoral marks. For example, if 15 candidates are participating in the seven general seats of Sindh, then all the members of the Sindh Assembly have to give their preference numbers from one to 15 next to the candidates on the ballot paper, and if the member casting the vote is one. If the digit is forgotten, i.e. instead of giving preference to 10 after 9, if 11 is preferred to a candidate, his nine votes will be counted, while all preference votes after 9 to 15 will be canceled or cancelled.

Upper House inactive for three weeks

Generally, the Senate elections are held before the term of the senators ends, thus the upper house is not inactive, but this time, for three weeks, half of the legislators were not in the upper house, nor the chairman of the senate and the deputy chairman. The reason for this was that the Electoral College was not complete due to a delay of three months in the general elections.

First, the provincial and national assemblies were sworn in, the assemblies were completed, the prime minister and president were elected, and now the phase of the Senate election is being completed.

What is the proportion of members present in the last senate elections?

The last elections were held on March 2, 2021, in which all 11 senators from Punjab were elected unopposed while elections were held on 12 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and 11 seats of Sindh.

Out of 12 seats in Balochistan, six Balochistan Awami Party, two seats of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan, two Azad, one ANP and one BNP party got seats.

Out of 12 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won 10 seats while Jamiat Ulema Pakistan and Awami National Party got one seat each.

Out of the 11 seats in Punjab, five were won by PTI, five by Pakistan Muslim League-N and one by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

Similarly, out of 11 seats in Sindh, eight were won by People’s Party, two by MQM and one by PTI.

Out of the two seats in Islamabad, one was won by the People’s Party and one by the PTI.

Who participates in Senate elections?

The members of the upper house are not elected directly by the people, but elected representatives of the people in the assemblies.

Senate candidates are elected from the provinces by the members of the provincial assembly, while the senator from the federal capital Islamabad is elected by the members of the National Assembly.

On the day of the Senate election, the four provincial assemblies and the National Assembly are converted into polling stations and the staff of the Election Commission of Pakistan conducts the polling.

Senators retiring on March 11

Among the 52 retired senators are Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, Deputy Chairman Mirza Afridi, Leader of the House Ishaq Dar, Leader of Opposition Dr Shahzad Wasim and Senator Raza Rabbani.

Among those who resigned, 13 were supported by the Muslim League-N, 12 by the Pakistan People’s Party, eight by the PTI, two by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, two by the Pashtun Khawa Milli Awami Party and two by the National Party, six were elected with the support of the Balochistan Awami Party. While Jamaat-e-Islami, MQM and Muslim League Functional have one senator each.

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