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Elections on 19 vacant Senate seats are currently under way in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures of Punjab and Sindh. However, they were postponed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the electoral watchdog over the dispute in swearing-in opposition members elected to reserved seats.
Polling in the NA and the provincial assemblies in Sindh and Punjab started at 9am and is set to conclude at 4pm.
According to Radio Pakistan, polling is being held in the NA for the election of two senators. Meanwhile, elections are under way in Punjab on five seats — two women and technocrat seats each and one women’s seat — and on 12 in Sindh — seven general seats, two women and technocrat seats each, and one minority seat.
Ballot papers in four different colours have been printed — white papers will be used for general seats, green for technocrat seats, pink for women, and yellow for minority seats.
The Senate became dysfunctional on March 11 following the retirement of 52 lawmakers. The elections are likely to see parties in the ruling coalition — the PML-N and PPP — move closer to a two-thirds majority in the upper house of parliament.
The opposition PTI will likely maintain its position as the single largest party in the new house, but it will be in no position to hamper the government’s legislative business.
Elections are not being held in Balochistan as lawmakers on the vacant seats there had been elected unopposed.
Polls postponed in KP
Polling did not begin in KP at 9am as scheduled and around two hours later, was postponed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) “on account of delay of oaths of reserved seats”.
KP election commissioner Shamshad Khan reached the assembly and sought a list of the sworn-in MPAs from the assembly staff. At the same time, the opposition petitioned the ECP to postpone the Senate elections there.
Subsequently, the ECP issued a notification of the poll postponement, which referred to its March order wherein it had rejected a petition filed by the Sunni Ittehad Council — the new face of the PTI — seeking the allocation of reserved seats.
Recalling that the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had upheld its decision, the ECP noted that “no arrangement for oath was made”. It added that the RO for the Senate polls informed the electoral watchdog today that assembly speaker Babar Saleem Swati had still “not arranged oath”.
“The commission is of the considered view that the standards of honesty, justness and fairness of election as provided in Article 218(3) of the Constitution cannot be fulfilled due to non-administration of oath to elected members and which amounts to disenfranchisement of lawful voters and denial of level playing field to the voters,” the ECP said.
Stating that the electoral college was “incomplete”, the ECP postponed the elections till the administration of oaths to the MPAs-elect on reserved seats under Article 218(3) of the Constitution read with sections 4(1), 8(c) and 128 of the Elections Act, 2017.
Last week, the ECP had hinted at postponing the Senate elections for KP if Swati kept on delaying their oath-taking. The speaker had filed a review petition yesterday against the PHC order wherein it had directed him to administer oaths to 25 opposition MPAs elected to reserved seats.
Meanwhile, KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur vowed that he would not let “illegal people” take oath — referring to the MPAs-elect belonging to the opposition parties — and vowed to “go to the very end” for that.
Speaking to media in Peshawar, he insisted the opposition was “violating the Constitution continuously”. Lamenting that reserved seats were “snatched” from the SIC, the PTI stalwart vowed that his party would “take back our right”.
Gandapur further said that the PTI would summon its parliamentary meeting and pass a resolution on the matter.
On the other hand, KP Opposition Leader Dr Ibadullah Khan assailed the Swati and CM Gandapur for becoming “tigers” of former premier Imran Khan instead of fulfilling their duties.
The PML-N leader termed it “unfortunate” that Senate elections could not be held in KP and said the provincial government did not follow court orders, the ECP, the Constitution or the law but only the “directives” given by Imran.
Speaker Swati said that the opposition parties had not presented the “correct facts” before the PHC, adding that they had said an assembly session had been summoned when it had not been.
He reiterated that he could not administer the oaths as ordered by the PHC as a session of the House had not been summoned. Swati said his review petition sought “further directives and clarification” on the matter and that he would follow what the PHC orders.
Dar appointed as presiding officer for 1st Senate session
In a related development, it emerged that President Asif Ali Zardari, on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s advice, has appointed Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar as the presiding officer for the first session of the upper house of Parliament.
According to a summary sent by the PM Office to President Zardari dated March 29, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the tenures of the Senate chairman and deputy chairman expired on March 11.
The summary quoted the rules of procedure for the Senate: “The first meeting of the Senate for election of the chairman shall be presided over by the outgoing chairman or, in his absence, by a person nominated by the president, for the purpose, hereinafter in this rule and in rule 10 referred to as the presiding officer; provided that no person shall preside over the meeting for the election in which he himself is a candidate.”
The PMO summary then nominated Dar to “preside over the first meeting of the new parliamentary year of the Senate for [the] election of chairman and deputy chairman”.
Subsequently, in a notification dated March 30, President Zardari approved PM Shehbaz’s advice.
Elections in Punjab, Sindh
In Punjab, voting is being held on two women and technocrats seats each and one minority seat of women in the province.
Provincial election commissioner Ejaz Anwar Chohan, who would serve as the returning officer (RO), and assembly secretary Aamir Habib reached the assembly to review the polling arrangements. MPA Bilal Yameen from PP-6 cast the first vote.
Speaking to reporters at the assembly, speaker Malik Ahmed Khan expressed hope that the PML-N would win all the vacant seats from Punjab. He further said that coalition partner PPP was supporting his party in the elections.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, who the PML-N has nominated for a technocrat seat, also reached the Punjab Assembly. Speaking to reporters, he expressed his “full optimism” for being successful in the election.
In Sindh, 19 candidates are contesting for 12 seats including seven general seats, two women, two technocrats/Ulema and one minority seat in the province.
Lawmakers Jam Mehtab Dahar, Ghulam Qadir Chandio, Shaheena Sher Ali, Hallar Wassan, Sumeta Afzal, Heer Soho and Muhammad Bux Mehar were among the 60 votes cast in the assembly as of yet.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah expressed the hope for 12 PPP candidates to be elected to the Senate.
Speaking to the media outside the Sindh Assembly, he said that Sarfaraz Rajar withdrew his nomination papers on the party’s directives as the party was supporting independent candidate Faisal Vawda.
In an indirect reference to the PTI, CM Shah said that those who made tall claims about giving surprises in the Senate election finally retreated from the arena and boycotted the election from Sindh.
Elected unopposed
Those who have made their way to the upper house of parliament unopposed include PML-N’s Syedal Nasir and Shahzeb Durrani, PPP’s Sardar Umar Gorgej, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Ahmed Khan and Awami National Party’s (ANP) Aimal Khan on general seats in Balochistan.
Likewise, National Party’s Jan Muhammad, former caretaker prime minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar who contested as an independent, PPP’s Hasana Bano and PML-N’s Rahat Jamali were also elected unopposed.
PPP’s Bilal Ahmed Khan and JUI-F’s Maulana Wasay have won two seats reserved for ulema/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 these seven seats unopposed.
They include Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi (independent) who has served as caretaker Punjab chief minister, and PML-N’s Pervaiz Rashid, Ahad Cheema, Talal Chaudhry, and Nasir Mehmood. Other successful candidates are Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen’s (MWM) Raja Nasir Abbas and PTI’s Hamid Khan.
Senate composition
The Senate consists of 96 lawmakers. However, only 48 seats were up for grabs this year — 12 each from Punjab and Sindh, 11 each from KP and Balochistan and two from Islamabad — as half of the senators are elected at one time, and the other half three years later.
Each senator serves a term of six years, barring resignation, disqualification or other extraordinary circumstances.
The Senate comprises 23 members each from the four federating units and four from Islamabad. The 23 seats allocated to a province comprise 14 general seats, four reserved for women, four for technocrats and one for minority members.
The ECP said that in all, 147 candidates had filed nomination papers for 48 Senate seats, of whom 18 had been elected unopposed. They include seven each against general seats from Punjab and Balochistan and two each against reserved seats for women and technocrats from Balochistan. That means there will be no election in Balochistan.
As many as 11 candidates are vying for seven general seats from Sindh. Three candidates are in the run for two seats reserved for women, four for two seats reserved for technocrats and two for one seat reserved for minorities from the province.
In Punjab, where all the seven candidates against general seats have already been elected unopposed, three candidates are in the run for two seats reserved for technocrats, four for two reserved seats for women, and two candidates for one seat reserved for minorities.
Two candidates each are vying for a general and a technocrat seat from the federal capital.