Dar to be presiding officer for Senate chairman, deputy chairman elections

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Zardari on Tuesday appointed Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar as the presiding officer to conduct elections of the chairman and deputy chairman of Senate. 

Dar will also administer the oath to the newly elected senators in the upper house’s first session post-elections.

The president signed the summary in this regard on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The Senate secretariat said that according to the parliamentary tradition, only a present senator can be the presiding officer of the first session.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) postponed Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the opposition members filed a plea seeking postponement due to a stand-off with the provincial government over oath-taking of MPAs-elect on the reserved seats.

On the other hand, polling was underway on the vacant seats of the Senate in the National Assembly and two provincial assemblies with the ruling alliance — comprising Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and other smaller parties — set to gain a two-thirds majority in the upper house of Parliament.

Polling started at 9am and will continue till 4pm at the National Assembly, Punjab Assembly and Sindh Assembly, while all the 11 candidates in Balochistan have been elected unopposed.

The polling was scheduled to be conducted to elect 48 senators, initially, 11 each from KP and Balochistan, 12 each from Punjab and Sindh and two from Islamabad.

However, after the unopposed election of 18 senators from Punjab and Balochistan, now the elections will be held for 30 vacant seats and 59 candidates are in the field to reach the Senate.