ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The elections took place at the National Assembly and all four Provincial Assemblies to fill 48 vacant Senate seats with four lawmakers from Sindh had already been elected unopposed.
The polling was held through secret ballot and continued till 4:00 pm. However, voting in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly suspended twice following rigging allegations. Later, the polling for Senate seats in the provincial assembly was extended till 8:00 pm.
Unofficial results of the Senate elections
Polling in National Assembly
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates won both the Senate seats from the federal capital in the polling held at the National Assembly hall in Islamabad on Thursday.
The PML-N’s candidate against general seat Iqbal Zafar Jhagra secured 211 votes while the party’s candidate Raheela Magsi bagged 205 votes to win the seat reserved for women from Islamabad.
The runner up candidate Raja Imran of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) got 68 votes for general seat and the PPP’s Nargis Faiz Malik received 71 votes for the seat reserved for women.
Polling in Punjab Assembly
The PML-N won all 11 seats of Senate from Punjab, according to the unofficial Senate elections results.
The successful candidates against general seats included Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed, Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah, Chaudhry Tanwir, Saleem Zia, Lt. General (retd) Abdul Qayyum, Ghaus Khan Niazi and Nehal Hashmi.
Raja Zafarul Haq and Professor Sajid Mir were elected against seats reserved for technocrats while Najma Hameed and Ayesha Raza against seats reserved for women.
Polling in Sindh Assembly
Five candidates belonging to the PPP including Rehman Malik, Abdul Latif Ansari, Saleem H Mandviwala, Islamuddin Shaikh and Engineer Giyan Chand were declared elected as Senators in Sindh Assembly in Karachi today, according to unofficial results.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Khushbakht Shujaat and Mian Atiq Shaikh were also declared elected as Senators.
Polling in Balochistan Assembly
In Balochistan’s Senate elections, Niamatullah Zehri of the PML-N, Abdul Ghafoor Haidery of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Usman Kakar and Sardar Muhammad Azam Khan of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Hasil Khan Bazejo of the National Party (NP), Dr Jahanzaib Jamaldini of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal) and Yousaf Badeni (independent) were elected.
Mir Kabir Ahmed of the NP and Engineer Agha Shahbaz Khan Durrani of the PML-N were elected as Senators on technocrats while Kalsoom Perveen of the PML-N and Gul Bashra of the PkMAP won the elections on women reserved seats.
The NP’s Dr Ashok Kumar was elected as Senator on minority seat.
Polling in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, timing for polling of Senate elections was extended up to 8:00 pm after a temporary suspension over allegations of rigging.
In this regard, a consensus was reached between the government and opposition members.
Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA)
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) postponed Senate elections on four FATA seats.
It is expected that a new date will be announced later.
