ISLAMABAD: The elections to fill 30 vacant seats of the Senate will be held on Tuesday (today) amid confusion about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in view of a stand-off between the provincial government and opposition over the oath-taking of MPAs-elect on the reserved seats.
Instead of complying with the Peshawar High Court’s recent order to administer oath to the legislators-elect, Speaker Babar Saleem Swati has filed a review petition with the court on the eve of the polling.
“All arrangements are in place to hold the electoral process. Regarding the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Election Commission will closely watch the related developments today prior to deciding the future course of action,” a senior official at the Election Commission, when approached over telephone told The News.
He pointed out that the Election Commission stood by its order of delaying polling to fill the Senate’s vacant seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, if oath was not administered to the MPAs-elect as per the PHC order.
The official agreed that this was the first time that the Election Commission was facing such a crisis-like situation, insisting the electoral body would stick to the Constitution and the election laws.
The polling was scheduled to be conducted to elect 48 senators, initially, 11 each from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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.
As per the legislators’ parlance, and if polling is held as scheduled, there is a strong possibility of the ruling coalition parties, namely PMLN and PPP, managing to get a two-thirds majority in the House. However, the PTI will most likely maintain its status as the single largest party.
It goes without saying that the new senators, belonging to the opposition, will be in a position to make the proceedings stormier but going by the rules of the game, they would not be able to impede legislation, floated by the ruling coalition.
Presently, the PTI has 20 maximum members in the House, including those elected unopposed recently, and can add at least seven more seats to its tally from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, if polling is conducted there.
The PPP, set to emerge as the second largest party to win 10 to 11 seats from Sindh and one each from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad, presently has 13 members but after winning 12 to 13 seats in the elections, with 25 to 26 members.
Likewise, the PMLN also has 13 senators presently, like PPP, and is expected to win another seven seats: five from Punjab and one each from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad; thus becoming the third largest party in the Senate.
The Senate will comprise 96 members: 23 each from the four federating units and four from Islamabad. The 23 seats allocated to a province consist of 14 general seats, four reserved for women and as many for technocrats, and one for minority member.
The elections to fill the Senate seats allocated to each province are held in accordance with the ‘system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote’. That is why the Senate elections always depend on the party positions in the four provincial legislators and the National Assembly as well.
Meanwhile, the Jamhoori Watan Party has challenged the Balochistan Assembly membership of Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, contending that being a part of the federal caretaker cabinet, he could not contest the general elections.
JWP’s Nawabzada Gohram Bugti filed a petition with the Election Commission of Pakistan on Monday alleging that Sarfraz Bugti had contested the election after having appointed polling staff of his choice and then stepping down from the cabinet post.
Gohram remained MPA from 2018 to 2023 and in February 8 elections, he was defeated by Sarfraz Bugti.
He charged that through rigging, the chief minister had won from PB-10 and urged for thumb verification of voters.
He insisted that how could a candidate, who remained a member of the caretaker setup, contest elections what to talk of becoming the assembly member.
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