NA gears up for Senate poll preparations

Lower house meeting seeks approval to turn NA hall into polling station; summary forwarded to PM

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly is set to convene on April 1 to make preparations for the highly anticipated election of 48 Senate seats, sources from the National Assembly Secretariat disclosed on Monday.

Approval regarding the Senate elections will be sought during the National Assembly session slated for April 2. It has been revealed that the National Assembly Hall will be transformed into a polling station for this purpose.

The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has forwarded a summary to the Prime Minister's House.
It is anticipated that the Prime Minister's House will subsequently dispatch the summary to the president, formalising the decision to convene the meeting.

It is pertinent to note that any appeals regarding the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers were slated for disposal by March 25, with the final list of candidates scheduled for display on March 27.

Polling for the Senate elections is set for April 2, preceded by the issuance of a revised candidate list on March 26 and a window for withdrawal of nomination papers until March 27.

In the federal capital, members of the National Assembly will cast their votes to elect senators for one general seat and one seat for technocrats, including Ulema.

Similarly, members of the four provincial assemblies will participate in the selection process, electing senators for various seats, including general, women, and technocrats, in accordance with provincial quotas.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 42 candidates have submitted their nomination papers, with 25 vying for general seats, 10 for technocrats and Ulema seats, and seven women candidates for reserved seats.
Meanwhile, the Balochistan election commission has released a preliminary list of candidates for the province's vacant Senate seats.

Among the 38 candidates whose nomination papers have been approved, 17 are competing for general seats, 13 for technocrat seats, and 8 for women's seats.