PTI wins two more Senate seats from Punjab

Waleed Iqbal and Seemi Azadi elected on a general and reserved seat

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has succeeded in grabbing two more Senate seats from Punjab after a tough contest with the former ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

On Thursday polling was held at the Punjab Assembly for one general and one reserved Senate seat for women. The two seats from Punjab had got vacant after the disqualification of the PML-N’s Haroon Akhtar and Sadia Abbasi on account of their dual nationalities.

The PTI’s Waleed Iqbal, the grandson of the national poet Allama Iqbal, stood victorious on the general seat by securing 184 votes. The PML-N candidate, Chaudhry Saud Majeed, grabbed 176 votes.  Seven votes were declared invalid.

The PTI’s Seemi Azidi, who is a sister of the PTI leader Jehangir Tareen, also clinched the reserved seat for women by obtaining 183 votes against the PML-N’s Saira Afzal Tarrar who got 175 votes. This time nine votes were declared invalid.

There are 369 members in the Punjab Assembly right now against its original strength of 371 as two seats are still vacant. As many as 367 votes were cast on Thursday as Sohail Shukat Butt of the PML-N and Sardar Awais Dareshak of the PTI could not cast their votes.

In his victory speech, Waleed Iqbal thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan, the MPAs of the PTI and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain – whose party is the main ally of the PTI in the Punjab – for their support.



The slim margin of just 8 votes with which the PTI’s candidates won the polls have set alarm bells ringing for the PTI-led coalition government in Punjab as the ruling alliance has support of 195 MPAs but it could not get votes according to its strength. The PML-N has 167 MPAs in the house but it got additional votes thanks to support of 7 MPAs from the Pakistan People’s Party.

MPA Azma Bukhari, who was serving as polling agent from the PML-N, said all the PTI’s tall claims had proved wrong.  “The PTI time and again claimed that there are rifts within the PML-N but our party is still intact as is evident from today’s election results.

“The ruling alliance has the majority of just 8 votes in the house and their majority is shrinking rapidly day by day. Last month their candidate won the Senate election with the lead of 12 votes but now their lead is of just 8 votes,” she said.



In October, the PTI’s Dr Shehzad Waseem defeated the PML-N’s Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan. The PTI now has three senators from Punjab after the victory of Waleed Iqbal and Seemi Azidi. Earlier, Dr Shehzad was the only lawmaker of the party representing Punjab in the Senate.

Later, Punjab Minister for Housing Mehmoodur Rasheed told media that his party would thoroughly investigate why a large number of votes were declared invalid in crucial Senate elections.