ISLAMABAD: After a high stake and hotly contested fight in Senate Elections, former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani emerged victorious against the ruling party’s Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
After the result was announced, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and the former prime minister shook hands and hugged each other. The news of Hafeez’s defeat was told to him by Zain Qureshi, who was the minister’s polling agent, following which the two men embraced each other.
Reacting to news of Gillani’s victory, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari tweeted “Democracy is the best revenge”.
Analysts termed it a big upset for Prime Minister Imran Khan since he had personally campaigned for Shaikh and had managed to win over most of the government’s allies.
Gillani’s victory could make the prime minister even more upset with Shehryar Afridi, who wasted his vote when he signed the ballot papers.
Senior ministers of the government such as Fawad Chaudhry and Sheikh Rashid had earlier claimed that Sheikh would defeat the former prime minister easily.
Polling for the Senate election commenced at 9am and continued till 5pm after which the votes were counted.
The PDM fielded former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani as its joint nominee for the Islamabad seat against the PTI’s Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
Pakistan MPAs and MNAs have polled their votes to elect members of the country’s upper house of Parliament.
In the National Assembly, 340 members polled their votes. One hundred and sixty seven members cast their ballots in the Sindh Assembly and 65 in Balochistan Assembly.
Eight PTI MPAs have yet to cast their votes in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
The doors of the assemblies have been closed. Only the members present inside the assembly hall would be able to cast their ballots, the Election Commission of Pakistan said.
Abdul Qadir, an independent candidate from Balochistan, has been declared successful in the Senate election. He was backed by the PTI and BAP.
JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and BNP-M’s Qasim Ronjho have been elected senators from Balochistan.
PPP’s Palwasha Khan and MQM-P’s Khalida Atyeb have been declared successful from Sindh.
ANP’s Arbab Umar Farooq and BAP candidates Sarfaraz Bugti, Prince Agha Omar Ahmadzai and Manzoor Kakar have been elected senators from Balochistan.
On Wednesday, the first vote was casted by PTI’s Shafiq Arain followed by Faisal Vawda. Prime Minister Imran Khan and NA Speaker Asad Qaiser have voted as well.
The election is being held because 52 or almost half of Pakistan’s senators have completed their six-year terms, out of this four Fata senators won’t be replaced as the former tribal districts have been merged with KP. This leaves us with 48 seats. The polling is being held for 37 seats as 11 Punjab senators have been elected unopposed.
All senators are not elected at the same time and the elections for the remaining senators will be held in 2024.
Each provincial assembly gets to elect 23 senators each because the Senate has to have an equal number of people from each province. The National Assembly MNAs get to vote for two senators from the federal capital, Islamabad to be sent to the Senate.
Here’s a breakdown of the seats up for grabs:
Punjab Assembly: 11
Sindh Assembly: 11
KP Assembly: 12
Balochistan Assembly: 12
Islamabad: 2
Senate seats are reserved for women, minorities, and technocrats. The rest are called general seats.
On March 1, the Supreme Court gave its opinion on elections and said that it will be conducted through a secret ballot but the votes should be traceable. It instructed the electoral body to ensure that the elections are conducted “honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with the law and that corrupt practices are guarded against”. The commission must “take all available measures including utilising technologies to fulfil the solemn constitutional duty,” the judgement added.
The ECP has formed a three-member committee, comprising special secretary, IT director-general and Punjab member, to ensure the use of technology during the Senate election. It may also take assistance from NADRA, FIA, and the Ministry of IT.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf presented a bill in the National Assembly and then a presidential ordinance was also passed to ensure that the Senate elections are held through an open ballot. The party said that it wanted to ensure that the elections are “transparent” and “fair”. The elections in the past have been marred with allegations of horse-trading and parliamentarians selling their votes. In 2018, the PTI expelled 20 members for selling the votes during the 2018 Senate Elections.
Read more: Senate election 2021: Polling underway for 37 seats in NA, provincial assemblies
