No surprises as coalition sweeps Senate polls

ISLAMABAD:

 

The ruling coalition parties swept the Senate elections held on Tuesday in the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Sindh, which brought no big surprises as the results were by and large in line with the pre-polls projections in accordance with party positions.

After the election, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led ruling alliance came in a dominating position in the 96-strong upper house of parliament with 61 seats, including independents, as opposed to the opposition parties’ 24 seats.
The near and over two-thirds majority of the treasury benches puts the ruling coalition in a comfortable position in both the houses to legislate and even go for constitutional amendments without facing any hindrance from the opposition parties.

Elections were held on one technocrat and one general seats in the National Assembly, seven general seats, two technocrats, two women and one minority seats in Sindh and two technocrats two women and one minority seats in Punjab Assembly.

The voting did not take place in Balochistan Assembly as all the senators were elected unopposed from the province; and in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, where the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) postponed the vote because of a controversy over administering oath to some opposition lawmakers.

The highest number of seats, 14, was won by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), while the PML-N followed closely with 13, according to the results. Two seats went to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) each.

The parties with single-seat victory included the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the Awami National Party (ANP) and the National Party (NP). Besides, three candidates won the election independently, the results showed.

Overall, the PPP won seven general seats, three technocrats seats, three for women and one for minorities. The PML-N secured six general seats, three technocrats seats, three for women and one for minorities.

The election raises the number of senators to 85, as the polls were postponed on 11 seats of the K-P, where some the newly-elected opposition members on reserved seats were not allowed to take oath despite a ruling each from Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The polling, held only for 19 seats, commenced at 9am and concluded at 4pm. In the National Assembly, PML-N’s Ishaq Dar won the technocrat seat with 222 votes against 81 of SIC’s Raja Ansar Mahmood. PPP’s Rana Mahmoodul Hassan got 224 votes on a general seat, against 79 of the SIC’s Farzand Ali Shah.

In the Sindh Assembly, where the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the SIC boycotted the voting, election was held among 20 candidates, contesting for 12 seats. As expected the PPP grabbed 10 seats, while the remaining two went to the MQM-P and one independent.

The winners included PPP’s Quratulain Marri and Rubina Qaimkhani, both elected on women’s seat with 59 and 58 votes respectively. On the two technocrats seats, PPP’s Sarmad Ali and Barrister Zamir Ghumro won with 29 and 58 votes, respectively.

Similarly, Poonjomal Bheel of the PPP was elected on the seat for non-Muslims. In the contest for seven general seats, the PPP grabbed five seats, the MQM-P won one while another seat was won by an independent candidate.

The winning PPP candidates are Masroor Ahsan securing 23 votes; Dost Ali Jaisar, 23 votes; Ashraf Ali Jatoi, 22 votes; Syed Kazim Ali Shah 22 votes; and Nadeem Bhutto, 21 votes. Besides, MQM-P’s Amir Chishti and independent candidate Faisal Vawda also won, each securing 21 votes.

On two technocrats seats in Punjab, PML-N’s Muhammad Aurangzeb, the current finance minister, and Musadik Malik, the incumbent petroleum minister, won comfortably, securing 128 and 121 votes respectively. Dr Yasmeen Rashid of the SIC, a third candidate in the race secured 106 votes.

On two women’s seats, PML-N's Anusha Rehman and Bushra Anjum Butt won with 125 and 123 votes, respectively. Here SIC’s Sanam Javed obtained 102 votes. PML-N's Khalil Tahir Sindhu received 253 votes to defeat SIC’s Asif Ashiq, who got 99 votes, on a minorities seat.

Last week, seven candidates for the general seats in Punjab were elected unopposed after five others withdrew their candidature. The winners included PML-N’s Pervez Rasheed, Talal Chaudhry, Nasir Mehmood Butt, Ahad Cheema and the government-backed independent Mohsin Naqvi.

Besides, two opposition candidates – senior lawyer Hamid Khan of the SIC, and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri, the head of the Muttahida Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) – were also elected without a contest in the province.

Also last week, the treasury and the opposition parties in Balochistan reached consensus on the unopposed election of seven candidates, contesting on the general seats of the Senate. Later, the coalition parties also reached consensus on the remaining four technocrats and women’s seats.

Those elected unopposed included former caretaker prime minister Anwarul Haq Kakar, who contested as an independent; ANP’s Aimal Wali, Syedal Khan Nasar, Shahzaib Durrani of the PML-N; Sardar Omar Gorgaij of the PPP, Jan Muhammad Buledi of the NP, and Ahmed Khan Khilji of the JUI-F.

On the technocrats seats, JUI-F leader Maulana Abdul Wasay and PPP's Bilal Mandokhel won, while PML-N’s Rahat Jamali and PPP's Hasna Bano were elected unopposed to represent Balochistan in the upper house of parliament.New SenateThe election results showed that the PPP emerged as the largest party in the Senate with 24 seats, followed by the PML-N with 19 seats. Among its allies, the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) has four seats; MQM-P three; ANP, three; NP, two; and PML-Quaid one.

This raises the strength of the ruling coalition to 56. However, if five independents, including interior minister Mohsin Naqvi, former caretaker prime minister Anwarul Haq Kakar, and Faisal Vawda, support the government then the number reaches 61.

On the other hand, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) managed to bag only two seats from Punjab – one on the platform of the SIC and an ally MWM. With its previous 17 seats, the total number of its seats reached to 19.

It is expected that PTI/SIC can win an additional seven seats when the controversy regarding oath taking of members on reserved seats is resolved. Experts said that if PTI got reserved seats through its legal battle then its seats in the Senate can increase by nine.

The political experts calculate that if the opposition lawmakers on the reserved seats are sworn in and cast their vote in the Senate election in the K-P Assembly, the result may look like seven for the PTI, two to JUI-F, and one each to the PML-N and the PPP.

Currently, 42 senators are in the house, while six members who were recently elected in by-election have not yet taken oath. Once they take oath, the total number of the senators previously elected would reach to 48.

Election on 48 seats was scheduled on Tuesday, including 11 K-P seats. This makes the total strength of the house to 96. The number of total seats of Senate has reduced from 100 to 96 this time around as four seats of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (ex-Fata) were merged with K-P.

(With inputs from our correspondents in Karachi and Lahore)