Senators-elect given five days to submit election expenditure details

PESHAWAR: The Returning Officer for the Senate election on Sunday set five-day deadline for the 11 newly-elected senators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to submit details of election expenditure or else their official result will not be released.

The Returning Officer, Pir Maqbool Ahmad, issued notices to the newly elected-senators to submit the details with his office. As per the official communiqué, the elected senators could obtain the forms from the office of the Provincial Election Commission.

Interestingly, the ceiling of campaign expenditure for the Senate election has been increased from Rs1 million to Rs1.5 million as per the Election Act 2017. In reality though, the candidates end up spending much more than the amount they are allowed under the election laws. Besides, there are horse-trading allegations in every Senate election and this time it was no different as MPAs from a number of parties didn't vote for their party candidates. This obviously meant they voted for someone else in return for monetary considerations.

An official said on condition of anonymity that it was just a formality that Rs1.5 million can be spent by a candidate in the Senate election as everyone knows how much is being spent to win a seat. "Nowadays only billionaires fielded by political parties are contesting the election to the Upper House of the Parliament," he remarked.

As per the unofficial result, five candidates of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won seats in the Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa even though it was expecting to win six seats. PTI candidates Muhammad Ayub Afridi, Fida Muhammad and Faisal Javed won election on general seats. The two PTI candidates who won seats reserved for women and technocrats were Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, presently Deputy Speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, and Mohammad Azam Swati, respectively. The latter served as a member of the Senate on the tickets of both the PTI and JUI-F, the party to which he belonged before joining the PTI.

JUI-Sami head Maulana Samiul Haq failed to secure the seat reserved for technocrats as he bagged only four votes. He was banking on PTI votes to win, but the party couldn't stop some of its MPAs from slipping away and voting for candidates of other parties. His defeat could cause friction between Maulana Samiul Haq's party and the PTI.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan had before the Senate election claimed that his party would win six seats in addition to the one by Maulana Samiul Haq who contested the election as an independent candidate.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) managed to win two seats in an impressive performance. Former chief minister Pir Sabir Shah, who returned to the Upper House of the Parliament on a general seat, and Dilawar Khan, who won a seat reserved for technocrats, were the PML-N winners.

Talha Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) won a general seat. His victory wasn't unexpected as he is a resourceful man and has won the Senate election in the past as well. He got 18 votes, a tally more than the JUI-F members in the provincial assembly.

However, the other JUI-F candidate, Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, lost the contest. He is the provincial chief of the JUI-F and has remained a senator in the past as well. The PPP did better than the other parties. It has six MPAs only, but it managed to win two seats in the Senate from the province. Bahramand Khan Tangi elected on a general seat and Rubina Khalid declared winner on a seat reserved for women were the two PPP winners in the Senate polls.