ECP schedules polls for 11 vacant Senate seats from K-P on Apr 2

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Saturday that elections for 11 vacant Senate seats from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) will take place on April 2. 

The 11 seats comprise seven general, two technocrat and two women seats. 

According to ECP officials, a total of 89 candidates have collected nomination papers from the provincial election commission to contest in the upcoming senate elections. Among these, 67 candidates are competing for the seven general seats, 14 for the two women seats, and 8 for the two technocrat seats.

Prominent lawmakers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) such as Faisal Javed and Azam Swati, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan's (JUI-P) Talha Mehmood, and Dilawar Mohmand have already submitted their nomination papers in connection with the Senate elections.

Read PPP bags four seats in Senate by-polls

The electoral process will see 143 members of the provincial assembly exercising their voting rights on the designated date.

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.

It is pertinent to mention that the four senators of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (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 96 members, in which each province is represented equally with 23 seats, while four are for Islamabad.