The nomination papers for the elections to 48 seats of the Senate will be submitted on Saturday (today) and Sunday (tomorrow).
The Senate elections will be held on 12 seats each from Punjab and Sindh; 11 each from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan; as well as two from the federal capital on April 2.
The process of receiving nomination papers has kicked off at the Senate secretariat in Islamabad.
The preliminary list of nominated candidates will be released on March 17.
The scrutiny of the papers will be completed by March 19. The appeals against the acceptance or rejection of the nomination papers can be filed till March 21. The appellate tribunal will decide the appeals till March 25 and the final list of candidates will be displayed on March 26.
“In pursuance of Section 107 of the Elections Act 2017, read with Clause (3) of Article 59 and Clause (3) of Article 224 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Senate (Election of Members from the Federal Capital) Order 2018…the Election Commission of Pakistan hereby calls upon the Members of National Assembly to elect Members of the Senate against one General seat and one seat for Technocrats including Ulema from the Federal Capital,” read a notification issued by the ECP.
The commission called upon the members of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan legislatures to elect senators for seven general seats, two for those reserved for women and two for technocrats including Ulema from each province.
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It further called for the election of one Senate seat for minorities each from Punjab and Sindh. These seats had fallen vacant after the expiration of the term of half of the senators on March 11.
Commenting on the upcoming Senate elections, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President of the Pakistan Institute of the Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), was of the view that it was a positive development for the country that the electoral processes for the NA, provincial legislatures and Senate were finally being completed.
It is pertinent to mention that the four senators of erstwhile FATA will be the last members who were elected on the quota for region. After the 25th Amendment to the Constitution that merged them with K-P, the tribal districts with will not have separate seats in the Senate.
Therefore, the Senate will now comprise of 96 members, in which each province is represented equally with 23 seats, while four are for Islamabad.
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