PM Imran names Sadiq Sanjrani as candidate for Senate chairman

Elections for the Senate chairperson would be held on March 12

Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Sadiq Sanjrani as a candidate for Chairman Senate, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said in a tweet on Thursday.

 

Prime Minister Ìmrañ Khan has announced Sadiq Sanjrani for Senate Chairmanship.

— Senator Shibli Faraz (@shiblifaraz) March 4, 2021

 

The elections for the Senate chairman would be held on March 12 after the completion of the incumbent's -Sadiq Sanjrani- tenure of three years.

The announcement came a day after the hotly contested Senate elections in which Yousaf Raza Gilani, the joint candidate of opposition parties, was elected senator from Islamabad, by defeating Abdul Hafeez Shaikh of the ruling party, according to unofficial results.

Gilani secured 169 votes while Shaikh received 164 ballots.Seven votes were rejected.

Read more: PTI gets the lion’s share in Senate polls

The ruling PTI dethroned its political arch-nemesis, the PML-N, as the single largest party in the upper house of parliament. This was what political pundits had predicted based on the governing party’s numerical strength in the four provincial assemblies.

According to the unofficial results, the PTI won 18 seats, taking its total Senate seats to 25, followed by the PPP with eight seats. The Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) won 6; the PML-N bagged five and the JUI-F 3. The MQM-P and the ANP won two seats each, while the Balochistan National Party (BNP) and the PML-Quaid-e-Azam got 1 seat each. Two independents were also elected.