PPP leader Nisar Khuhro claims easy win in Senate poll

The Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) candidate Nisar Khuhro easily won the Senate seat vacated due to disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Faisal Vawda in Sindh. Khuhro is also the PPP's Sindh president.

Polling in the Sindh Assembly for the by-election to this vacant Senate seat continued from 9:00am to 5:00pm. He received 99 votes, while two votes were rejected. A total of 101 votes were cast in the election.

The total number of seats in Sindh Assembly is 168, out of which the PPP candidate was elected Senator with 99 votes. Despite the announcement of boycotting the election for this Senate seat, PTI members of Sindh Assembly arrived to cast their votes. Among them were minority member Dewan Sachal and MPAs Karim Bakhsh Gabol, Shehryar Shar and Aslam Abro.

It may be recalled that Agha Arsalan was fielded by PTI as its candidate for the seat which fell vacant due to the disqualification of Faisal Vawda for holding a dual nationality. PTI announced a boycott of this election after which the MQM and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) also decided not to participate in the voting.

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The PTI leadership contacted the leaders of its allies MQM and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA). It recommended that they not run in the by-elections. Sindh Election Commissioner Saeed Gul, while announcing the results, declared Khuhro as the victor.

CM claims PTI MPAs voted for Khuhro

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah claimed four PTI MPAs, showing `no-confidence' in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, cast a vote in favor of PPP candidate Nisar Khuhro in the Senate election held in the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday.

He believed that PTI MNAs would also vote in favour of the no-confidence motion filed in the National Assembly by the joint opposition against Prime Minister Imran Khan. The CM issued this statement while talking to the media Senator-elect Nisar Khuhro after the unofficial announcement of results.

The chief minister, congratulating Khuhro on his return to the Senate election, disclosed that four PTI MPAs had come on their own to vote for Khuhro. "They showed `no confidence' in Imran Khan and I am sure the PTI MNAs will also vote in favour of the no-confidence motion tabled by the joint opposition in the National Assembly.  

Shah said that the "filthy and foul" used by the prime minister against the leadership of opposition parties in public meetings was a manifestation of his "defeat and downfall".

The CM said that if the PTI had no interest in contesting Senate elections, they should have withdrawn their nomination papers to save the expenses of the Election Commission of Pakistan.