Polls for seven Senate seats of Sindh today

Karachi
The elections for the seven Senate general seats of Sindh will be held at the provincial assembly building on Thursday (today).
Eight candidates have been in run for the seven seats including five of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, two of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and one of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional.
Two candidates each of the PPP and the MQM have been returned successful unopposed for four reserved seats for women and ulema/technocrats of the upper house of the parliament.
The polling will start at 9 am and end at 4pm at the committee room number one of the provincial assembly’s old building where 167 legislators will cast their votes.
Of them, PPP has 92 lawmakers, MQM 51, PML-F 10, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz eight, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf four and the National People’s Party two.
The officials and staff of the provincial chapter of the Election Commission of Pakistan will conduct and preside over the polling process.
While the polling will take place, the session of provincial assembly will be simultaneously conducted from 9am onwards in the hall of tge new building.
Speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani informed the lawmakers during the sitting of the legislature on Wednesday that all general passes issued to the prospective visitors of provincial assembly’s building had been cancelled for Thursday.
He said only lawmakers and media personnel would be allowed to enter the assembly’s premises on Thursday.
Political and media circles wi8ll keenly observe whether or not the four lawmakers of the PTI would turn up at the assembly’s building to cast their votes as their participation would increase the PML-F’s lone candidate’s chances of bagging a Senate seat.
It will also be interesting to see whether or not the two former Sindh chief ministers, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Liaquat Ali Jatoi, both now opposition PML-N MPAs, will turn up to cast their votes.
Lately, both men have been very vocal in their criticism against the alleged misconduct and corrupt practices of the PPP’s provincial government.
In a late evening development on Wednesday, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah held a reception for the PPP lawmakers and also the ruling party’s candidates for the Senate seats.