The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) dismissed an application filed by the ruling PTI seeking disqualification of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and notified his victory in the recent elections for the upper house of parliament.
With the official confirmation, the stage is set for a contest on the chairman’s slot between incumbent Sadiq Sanjrani, who has been nominated by Prime Minister Imran Khan as the ruling party’s candidate and Gilani on March 12.
The commissioned also announced the names of returned candidates on various vacant seats of Senate in place of those members whose term will expire on March 11.
According to the ECP notification, the winning candidates were declared as returned candidates on general, women, non-Muslim, and technocrats, including Ulema seats from the federal capital, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan.
Also, leaders of the PTI allied parties met Prime Minister Imran Khan. Minister for Defence Production Zubaida Jalal, Member National Assembly Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Minister for Housing Tariq Bashir Cheema, Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak, Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz and Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar were present in the meeting.
During the meeting, views were exchanged on the current political situation in the country and matters relating to allied parties.
The government’s allied parties reposed their full confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
They reiterated their full support regarding the prime minister's decision for the chairman and deputy chairman in the upper house of parliament.
The allied parties expressed their commitment and full support for the implementation of Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision.
According to sources, the names of Ijaz Chaudhry, Mirza Afridi, Walid Iqbal and Mohsin Uzair are being discussed for the deputy chairmanship.
The prime minister will meeting senators belonging to the allied parties on Thursday.
Separately, the Islamabad High Court also rejected the PTI’s petition against the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement candidate's win in the March 3 Senate polls.
The election commission further decided to conduct a hearing on Ali Haider Gilani’s video scandal and decided to also summon the two PTI lawmakers seen in the video.
The victory notifications of all 48 senators-elect including PTI's Faisal Vawda, were issued by the commission.
Earlier in the day, the IHC rejected PTI's petition against Gilani's victory in the Senate elections.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the plea filed against the PDM candidate by PTI MNA Ali Nawaz Awan.
Rejecting the plea, Justice Minallah told the petitioner to use the forum of ECP for resolution first where his case was already being heard.
“This writ cannot be heard on this occasion," the judge said, adding that courts should not be dragged in political matters unnecessarily.
The petitioner stated in his plea that a video had surfaced two days before the polls that proved Gilani's son Ali Haider's involvement in horse-trading.
On March 2, a day before the Senate elections, a video surfaced showing Haider telling two PTI members of the National Assembly about how to waste votes.
The PTI lawmaker added that the son also subsequently confessed meeting the PTI MNAs during a presser. Moreover, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz also admitted to being "influenced by the offer of tickets".
Awan pleaded to the court to declare the notification of the PDM candidate's win as void and ask the ECP to explain under which law did they accept Gilani's nomination papers.
He also asked the court to declare the PPP leader's participation in Senate elections as illegal and unconstitutional. "Action should be taken against both Gilani and his son for violating the election code," he added.
The ruling party had also filed an application with the polls supervisory body seeking disqualification of Ali Haider from the Punjab Assembly.
On March 9, at an earlier hearing by a four-member ECP bench, PTI counsel Ali Zafar was of the stance that the ruling party and allies have 180 MNAs in the lower house of the Parliament whereas the opposition has 160 members.
"Had the polls been transparent, [PTI candidate] Hafeez Shaikh would have won by a wide margin," Barrister Zafar had added.
The counsel apprised the bench that the lawmakers were offered money and tickets for the next elections to garner their support, alleging that PDM joint candidate Gilani had “bribed” the PTI MNAs.
"The premier then asked the ECP to intervene in the matter," he added.
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