Peshawar:
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly Senate elections sparked no surprise Monday as a prior understanding between the government and the opposition parties that became firm, resulting in the victory for all consensus candidates, according to unofficial results
The KP assembly voted for 11 vacancies in Parliament’s top house from the province. Originally scheduled for March 2024, the election was delayed due to a dispute over the award of reserved seats, which was ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court last month.
Among those who gave their ballot papers were 25 newly sworn legislators on reserved seats. They had taken oath one day earlier in the Governor House after a planned assembly session was postponed due to lack of decision -making.
At the forefront of the polls, Minister of Chief Ali Amin Gandapur of Pakistan Tehreek-E-In-Insaf (PTI) reached a seat sharing scheme with opposition parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamiat Disadvantaged Disadvanture Disadvantaged.
As part of the agreement, the government agreed to award five of the 11 seats to the opposition. However, some KP PTI supported candidates who ran independently denied initially withdrawing. While most were pulled out of Sunday night, a PTI hopeful, Khurram Zeeshan, remained in the race, but received no votes.
According to the unofficial results announced by the Provincial Election Commission, PTI’s Murad Saeed received the tallest 26 votes, followed by Faisal Javed, securing 22 votes. Ptis Mirza Afridi – former Vice President of the Senate – and Pir Noorul Haq Qadri tuned 21 votes each.
From the opposition, Maulana Attaul Haq Darwesh from Jui-F, Niaz Ahmed from PML-N and Talha Mahmood from PPP was chosen. Ahmed, son of PML-N leader Amir Muqam, cast 18 votes each, while Talha Mahmood secured 17 votes.
In technocrats and female spaces, PTI’s Azam Swati and Rubina Naz were elected. Both secured 89 votes each. From the opposition side, Dilawar Khan from Jui-F was selected on the Technocrats’ seat with 54 votes, while Rubina Khalid from PPP was selected for women’s seat with 52 votes.
The results were in line with the understanding that was reached earlier this month between the government and the opposition. According to the agreement, the government received four general seats, a technocrat and a women’s place, and the opposition got three general seats, a technocrat and a women’s place.
Previously, the vote started at 1 p.m. 11 instead of the planned at. 9. The voting process was led by the provincial election commissioner. A Treasury Member did not participate in the vote. As a result, the ballot papers were given by 144 out of 145 lawmakers.
The voting process went smoothly. The voting time was extended by one and a half hours. The first vote was passed by Jui-F’s Malik Adnan, while Chief Minister Gandapur was the last to cast the vote. Shortly after the results were announced, there was cheer among the respective party workers.
Punjab By-Polls
A PML-N candidate, Hafiz Abdul Karim, won the Senate Election in the Punjab Assembly and defeated Abdul Sattar from the opposition PTI, according to the unofficial result announced by the provincial electoral authorities.
The election was held to fill a vacant seat in the Senate from Punjab. During the vote, 345 legislators gave their ballot papers. Hafiz Abdul Karim secured 243 votes, while his rival, Abdul Sattar was examined 99 votes. Three votes were rejected.
