Senate: Mushahid Hussain, Osman Saifullah elected unopposed

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday declared Mushahid Hussain Syed of Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) and Osman Saifullah of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) successful candidates for two Senate seats from Islamabad. A notification has been issued in this regard.

Both candidates were elected unopposed as no appeal was filed till 4pm – the deadline set by the commission.

Mushahid Hussain was declared successful on the general seat while Osman Saifullah on the technocrat seat.

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz’s (PML-N) sole candidate from Islamabad, Muhammad Omar Mughal had withdrawn nomination papers on Monday, paving the way for unopposed election of the two candidates. The nomination papers of PML-N’s Dr Mazhar Hussain Mirza had earlier been rejected by the ECP for being incomplete and he did not file an appeal against the rejection.

Officials say that PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan and PML-N’s Ishaq Dar will likely be elected unopposed on technocrat seats from Punjab. Kamran Michael of PML-N has also been elected unopposed on a minority seat from Punjab, while Nuzhat Amir of PML-N and Khalida Parveen Qureshi of PPP are expected to be elected unopposed on reserved seats for women in Punjab.

Appeals regarding objections were also filed against various candidates at provincial officer of the ECP. The commission will dispose of the appeals on February 22 and 23, and a finalised list of candidates will be announced on February 24.

Members of the Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies will elect seven members each to the Senate on general, women, minorities and technocrat seats. National Assembly members will elect one member against a general seat and one on the technocrat seat, including Ulema, from the federal capital. FATA members will elect four members against general seats.

The newly-elected senators will take oath on March 12.