ISLAMABAD: Polling for Senate election was completed in the National Assembly along with two provincial assemblies –Sindh and Balochistan. The counting of votes is currently underway.
In a major upset to the government, the joint opposition candidate Yousuf Raza Gilani won the hotly contested general seat from Islamabad, beating PTI’s Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. According to unofficial and unverified results, Gilani won 169 votes, while Shaikh bagged 164 votes.
Sources have informed that seven of the total ballots cast in the National Assembly have been set aside; they may be deemed invalid and discarded.
Sindh Assembly
In the Sindh Assembly, 167 out of 168 members cast their votes, while Jamaat-e-Islami member Abdul Rashid did not cast his vote. Out of the 167 ballot papers cast, four were rejected.
According to unofficial results, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) obtained seven more votes and have 99 members in the Assembly. MQM’s candidate for a women’s seat Khalida Ateeb won with 57 votes, while PPP’s Palwasha Khan also won a women’s seat with 60 votes.
General seats: Saleem Mandviwala — PPP; Sherry Rehman – PPP; Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar – PPP; Taj Haider – PPP; Shahadat Awan – PPP; Faisal Vawda – PTI; Faisal Sabzwari – MQM-Pakistan. Women seats: Palwasha Khan — PPP; Khalida Ateeb — MQM-P (women seat). Technocrat seats: Farooq H. Naik – PPP; Saifullah Abro – PTI.
Balochistan Assembly
In the Balochistan Assembly, all 65 members have cast their votes, with the last vote was cast by Mir Hamal Kalmati of the BNP. Independent candidate Abdul Qadir, JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and BNP’s Muhammad Qasim have each been elected to a general seat.
General seats: Abdul Qadir – Independent; Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri — JUI-F; Muhammad Qasim — BNP; Sarfaraz Bugti — BAP; Prince Ahmed Umer Ahmedzai — BAP; Arbab Muhammad Umar Farooq – ANP; Manzoor Ahmed Kakar – BAP.
Technocrat seats: Saeed Hashmi – BAP; Kamran Murtaza – JUI-F. Women seats: Samina Mumtaz – BAP; Nasima Ahsan – Independent. Minority seat: Danesh Kumar – BAP.
ANP’s Arbab Muhammad Umar Farooq, and BAP’s Ahmed Kakar, Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti and Price Ahmed Umar Ahmed were the candidates supported by the government on general seat.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
Polling was delayed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. Apart from Jamaat-e-Islami, all other political parties participated in the polling which ended without any untoward incident.
General seats: Shibli Faraz – PTI; Liaquat Turkai – PTI; Mohsin Aziz ¬ PTI; Faisal Saleem – PTI; Taj Afridi – BAP; Hidayat Ullah – ANP. Women seats: Falak Naz — PTI; Sania Nishtar — PTI. Technocrat seats: Dost Muhammad ¬– PTI; Dr Muhammad Humaiyun – PTI. Minority seat: Gurdeep Singh – PTI.
The Voting period
The polling ended at 5:00 PM without any interruption. Shafiq Arain of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was the first lawmaker who cast his vote in the Senate elections followed by PTI’s Faisal Vawda. Moreover, PTI’s Omar Ayub and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) senior vice president Shahid Khaqan Abbasi have also cast their votes.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, National Assembly (NA) Speaker Asad Qaiser and Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif are among those who have cast their votes. Voting is taking place through secret ballots after a long-drawn open ballot controversy.
Earlier, Chairman Kashmir Committee Shehryar Khan Afridi submitted an application with Election Commission, saying that he may be allowed to recast his vote as he put his signature on the ballot papers instead of putting numbers.
Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed anger after Shehryar Afridi was unable to give a satisfactory explanation in this regard. “We told everyone how to cast vote. You are an MNA, how can you not know the procedure of vote casting?” PM said.
During the day, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja visited the National Assembly Hall to review the polling process. Polling was due on 37 seats of the 104-member house.
The National Assembly members voted for one general seat and one women’s seat from Islamabad. Voting was held for 11 seats of Sindh and 12 each of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
However, In Punjab, there were 11 seats but thanks to the efforts of the PML-Q leadership all the senators have been elected unopposed. Overall, 48 senators will be elected this year.
ECP’s directives
The Returning Officer (RO) has issued directives to the lawmakers to cast their vote for the candidates using digits on the ballot papers. The ballot paper will be rejected if a lawmaker writes in double digits. White-coloured ballot papers will be used to cast votes for candidates on the general seat and purple-coloured ballot papers will be used for reserved seats for women.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) barred all including voters, candidates and polling agents to carry mobile phones or camera in the Parliament House, whereas, the NA lawmakers will have to show the card issued from the assembly to get ballot papers
According to the instruction letter issued by the ECP, the vote will be rejected if an identification mark of the voter appears on the ballot paper. There will be no polling in Punjab as all the candidates for three categories — seven general and two seats each reserved for women and technocrats — were elected unopposed last week.
Two senators will be elected from the federal capital, eleven from Sindh 12 from Balochistan and 12 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There are a total of 72 candidates contesting the 2021 Senate polls from the federal capital and the three provinces.
