Sharifs’ supporters secure Senate

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) bagged 15 seats in the Senate election on Saturday emerging as the majority party in the upper house of the Parliament with 33 seats, according to unofficial results.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that commanded majority in the Upper House till Saturday followed close behind the PML-N with 20 seats.

The PML-N backed independent candidates secured 11 of the 12 seats in the Punjab Assembly, and two seats each in the Federal Capital and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. The PML-N did well in the KP Assembly also where it has 16 MPAs.

Enjoying support of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Asad Junejo returned as Senators-elect from the Federal Capital on technocrat and general seats respectively. In all, five candidates were in the running for these two seats. Mushahid pocketed 223 votes, while his rival Shakil Abbasi of the PPP got 64 votes. Junejo secured 214 votes, while his opponent Raja Imran Ashraf received 45 votes.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) managed to bag 10 out of 12 seats from Sindh and two from the KP. As many as 161 lawmakers out of the 166 members of the Sindh Assembly voted in the Senate elections conducted at the Sindh Assembly from 9 am to 4 pm. Four legislators of the MQM-Pakistan and one MPA of the PPP didn’t take part in the Senate polling as they were abroad. The PPP won five out of seven general seats of the Senate from Sindh. Its winning candidates are Mian Raza Rabbani, Maula Bukhsh Chandio, Mohammad Ali Shah Jamote, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Imamdin Shokeen. Two of its candidates, Dr Sikandar Mandhro and Rukhsana Zuberi, won Senate seats reserved for technocrats in the province. Two candidates of PPP Krishna Kohli and Quratulain Marri won Senate seats reserved for women in Sindh. Anwar Lal Dean of PPP won the only seat reserved for minorities in Sindh.

Barrister Mohammad Farogh Naseem of the Opposition MQM Pakistan and Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah of PML-F won general seats of Senate in the province as well.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) bagged five out of 11 Senate seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. The party won three general seats and one each in the woman and technocrat category. In addition, Chaudhry Sarwar won a seat in the general category from Punjab.

As many as seven out of 11 sitting MNAs belonging to Fata voted to elect four Fata senators. The polling staff declared Hidayatullah, Hilal-ur-Rehman, Shamim Muhammad Afridi and Mirza Muhammad Afridi as successful against Fata seats. As many as 24 votes were rejected out of 300 polled votes of the 342-member National Assembly.

The polling started at 9:00am and continued till 4:00pm without break. The entry gates were shut at 4:00pm to enable those inside the NA hall to cast their vote. Two separate polling stations were set up at the Parliament House; one for two seats of the Federal Capital and two for the Fata seats.

The exercise saw elimination of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid from the Senate, which was once the largest party in the House during the era of former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, while the Balochistan National Party-Awami also made exit from the House.

The PML-Q’s three senators (Kamil Agha, Saeedul Hasan Mandokhail and Rubina Irfan) will retire on March 11 and so will the BNP-A’s two senators (Israrullah Zehri and Naseema Ehsan). Not a single candidate of these parties could make it to the Senate. The PML-Q’s Mushahid Hussain Sayed had resigned as senator a few weeks back to join PML-N.

The PML-Functional’s only Senator Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, who is due to retire next week, returned to the House again from Sindh.

And in case of BNP-Mengal has one senator Dr. Jehanzeb Jamaldini from Balochistan in the Senate. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) managed to secure only one seat from Sindh.

Among the smaller parties PML-F secured a seat from Sindh. The JUI-F bagged one seat each from Balochistan and the KP, while the National Party won two seats from Balochistan.

The JUI-F has a total of four seats and the MQM has five seats in the upper house. Now the total number of independent candidates has risen to 15.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Leader of Opposition Syed Khursheed Shah, former interior minister Ch. Nisar Ali Khan and PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi cast their votes.

Two members of the cabinet, Abdul Qadir Baloch and Jam Kamal, could not reach the Parliament House to cast their vote, as they were overseeing polling at the Balochistan Assembly.

Moreover, PTI Chairman Imran Khan, former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, Nisar Jat, who had joined the PTI, Tahir Iqbal, Tahir Bashir Cheema, MQM’s Dr. Farooq Sattar and Sh. Rashid Ahmad were also among those who did not turn up for polling.

Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) chief Aftab Sherpao, Fata candidate Nizamuddin and PTI’s Engineer Hamidul Haq alleged massive horse-trading and claimed that cash was distributed back home quietly.