PPP likely to bag 10 seats in Sindh, PMLN five in Punjab in Senate polls

ISLAMABAD: With 18 candidates elected unopposed from Balochistan and Punjab, all is set for polling on the remaining 30 seats of the Senate on April 2, whereas there is still uncertainty about the fate of polling in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. After some withdrawals and unopposed elections, there are now a total of 59 candidates in the electoral arena for the remaining Senate’s general and reserved seats for women and ulema and technocrats in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

There will be no polling in the Balochistan Assembly after the 11 candidates have been elected unopposed.

There is a crisis-like situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where those MPAs elected on women-reserved seats and non-Muslim seats could not be administered the oath. Six of them had moved the Election Commission of Pakistan, which, through an order, said that if the Peshawar High Court order for the administration of oath was not implemented, polling would be postponed accordingly.

The PHC was also petitioned by the MPAs-elect, which asked the speaker of provincial assembly to administer the oath to the members-elect and then facilitate their casting of the vote in Senate polls on April 2.

PTI’s Azam Swati has challenged the ECP’s order to link Senate polling to oath to MPAs-elect on reserved seats.

Likewise, the provincial government has also announced its intention to challenge the PHC ruling on the oath-taking of members elected to reserved seats in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. There is a possibility that polling in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly might not be held.

And, indeed, this will have its impact in many ways if elections are not held in the provincial assembly soon, as the house is already virtually dysfunctional due to the chairman and deputy chairman having retired after exhausting their three-year terms, respectively.

Those who have made their way to the upper house of the parliament unopposed include PMLN’s Syedal Nasir, Shahzeb Durrani, PPP’s Sardar Umar Gorgej, JUI’s Ahmed Khan and ANP’s Aimal Khan on general seats in Balochistan. Likewise, the National Party’s Jan Muhammad and former caretaker prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, who contested as an independent, won unopposed, while two women also won unopposed, PPP’s Hasana Bano and PMLN’s Rahat Jamali. PPP’s Bilal Ahmed Khan and JUI’s Maulana Wasay have won two seats for ulema and technocrats in Balochistan.

Similarly, seven members from Punjab were among those who won unopposed in the Senate elections. Elections were to be held on a total of 12 seats in Punjab, out of which seven are general seats, and candidates have won all the seven seats unopposed.

They include Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who served as caretaker Punjab chief minister and has won as an independent, while PMLN’s Pervaiz Rashid, Ahad Cheema, Talal Chaudhry, and Nasir Mehmood are also among the successful candidates. The other successful candidates are MWM’s Raja Nasir Abbas and Hamid Khan of the PTI.

On March 14, the election commission had issued the schedule for holding elections for the 48 Senate seats that fell vacant on March 11, 2024, with 12 seats each in Sindh and Punjab and 11 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Elections will also be held for two seats in Islamabad.

Out of 59 contesting candidates, four are in the fray for two women seats in Punjab province. Similarly, there is a contest between three candidates for two technocrat seats and two candidates for one minority seat.

If the ruling coalition remains united in Punjab and can get its members of the Punjab Assembly to vote in the elections under a joint strategy, then the PMLN candidates are in a position to win two seats each for women and technocrats, as well as the minority seat.

Moreover, in addition to seven general seats in Sindh province, elections will be held for two seats each for women and technocrats and one seat for minorities. Given its clear dominance in the provincial legislature, if the PPP decides to vote for independent candidate Faisal Vawda, then it can get at least five out of seven general seats, while the MQM will get one seat as well.

Similarly, PPP candidates are also likely to win two seats each for women, and technocrats and one seat for minorities in Sindh.

However, despite a lot of ifs and buts, an interesting contest in the Senate elections is likely to be held on 11 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. If the Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are postponed, elections to the posts of Senate chairman and deputy chairman are also likely to be held along with the oath of newly elected senators.

Meanwhile, according to its spokesman, the election commission has completed all the arrangements for holding the Senate elections. The printing of ballot papers and the delivery of election material to returning officers have also been completed.

LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) is likely to win five seats of Senate for which polling will be held in the Punjab Assembly on April 2, 2024.

Out of the 12 Senate seats from Punjab, seven senators of different political parties have already been elected unopposed. Political pundits say that as per the numbers game, the PMLN and its allies have 248 votes in the Punjab Assembly while the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) has 107 votes. It means PMLN women and technocrats will get 124 votes each against SIC candidates’ 53.5 votes each.

Those who already have been elected as senators without facing any contest are PMLN leaders Pervez Rasheed, Nasir Mehmood, Talal Chaudhry and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema while Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who was a candidate of the ruling alliance, was also elected.

SIC-backed Raja Nasir Abbas and Hamid Khan are also among the newly-elected parliamentarians. On the technocrat seat, Mustafa Ramday withdrew his nomination papers, whereas Shahzad Waseem, Musadik Malik, Walid Iqbal and Umar Ijaz Cheema took back their nominations from general seats.

Now the Senate elections will be held on five seats including two women, two technocrats and one minority in Punjab. Political pundits believe there is a possibility that PMLN candidates may win the seats of women and technocrats. From the PMLN side, Muhammad Aurangzeb and Musadik Malik are contesting technocrat seats while Anusha Rehman and Bushra Anjum Butt are contesting women seats. Other candidates are Faiza Malik representing the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Sanam Javed nominated by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

On the minority seat, there may be a contest between Khalil Tahir Sindhu and Asif Ashiq of the PMLN and Sindhu may win with a big margin due to a clear advantage.

The polling for Senate elections will be held on April 2 from 9am to 4pm in the National Assembly and four provincial legislatures. As per the election commission, 52 seats in the upper house of parliament will fall vacant after the expiration of the 6-year term of incumbent senators next week.

KARACHI: The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is most likely to win 10 out of the 12 seats of Senate of Pakistan from Sindh in the elections for the upper house of parliament to be held on April 2 (Tuesday).

The polls in the provincial assembly will be held for seven general seats, two seats for technocrats, two seats for women and one seat for religious minorities from the province in the Senate.

Given the current position of parliamentary parties in the PA, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) lone candidate for the Senate election in Sindh is sure to succeed.

The treasury benches in the PA have 116 PPP MPAs. On the opposition benches, the MQM-P has 36 MPAs, Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has nine, and Jamaat-e-Islami has one. Three Grand Democratic Alliance MPAs-elect have not taken the oath of office.

Given the highly fragmented position of the opposition MPAs in the House, it is highly unlikely for the MQM-P to clinch more than one seat in the Senate poll from Sindh, which is why it has fielded just one candidate for a general seat.

The PPP is sure to clinch five of the seven general seats and, in the current circumstances, it has the highest probability of winning even the sixth seat as well.

Reports, however, are rife that the PPP and MQM-P have reached an understanding to tacitly give support for the success of independent candidate Faisal Vawda against a general seat.

Vawda, a former federal minister and an ex-PTI leader, is contesting the Senate election independently. The proposer and seconders of his candidature from the PA are MQM-P MPAs.

He surely needs support from MPAs of both the PPP and MQM-P to win the seat. An influential MQM-backed candidate, Najeeb Haroon, who is a former PTI MNA, has withdrawn from the electoral race apparently to pave the way for Vawda’s victory.

Six independent candidates backed by the PTI are also in the race, but there is little chance of their victory due to the very thin presence of PTI-backed MPAs in the PA.

The PPP seems sure of also winning the two seats reserved for technocrats and women each, and one seat for minorities. Twenty candidates are in the run for the 12 seats. The PPP has fielded 11 candidates.

The PPP’s candidates are Syed Masroor Ahsan, Syed Kazim Ali Shah, Jeean Khan Sarfaraz Rajar, Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto, Dost Ali Jessar, Ashraf Ali Jatoi, Sarmad Ali, Zamir Hussain Ghumro, Poonjo, Qurat-ul-Ain Marri and Rubina Qaimkhani.

The MQM-P’s candidate for a general seat is Amir Waliuddin Chishti. The PTI-backed independent candidates are Mehjabeen Riaz, Ali Tahir, Mir Raja Khan Jakhrani, Abdul Wahab, Manzoor Ahmed Bhutta and Bhagwan Das. Voting will be held at the Sindh Assembly Hall from 9am to 4pm.

For the federal capital’s two seats -- one general and one for technocrat -- the PPP has fielded Mehmoodul Hassan and PML-N Muhammad Isaq Dar respectively, who will be facing the Sunni Ittehad Council’s Farzand Hussain and Raja Ansar Mehmood.