PESHAWAR: The results of the Senate elections for 11 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were announced on Monday, with the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and opposition parties winning six and five seats, respectively, based on a pre-arranged seat-sharing agreement.
Voting took place within the KP Assembly, where lawmakers from all parties cast their ballots amid tight security measures. Of the seven general seats, PTI candidates claimed four, while opposition candidates secured three. Notably, PTI’s Murad Saeed received the highest number of votes (26), followed by Faisal Javed and Mirza Mohammad Afridi, who garnered 22 and 21 votes each.
PTI’s Noorul Haq Qadri was also elected as a senator, securing 21 votes. The opposition’s successful candidates included Niaz Ahmad from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Talha Mahmood from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and Attaul Haq Darvesh from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F).
Among the two reserved seats for women, PTI and PPP each secured one. PTI’s Rubina Naz won decisively with 89 votes, while PPP’s Rubina Khalid captured the other with 52 votes.
On the two technocrat seats, PTI’s Azam Swati was victorious with 89 votes, and JUI-F’s Dilawar Khan won with 54 votes.The election was conducted smoothly under a strategic understanding between PTI, which was supported by 92 Members of Provincial Assembly (MPAs), and the opposition, backed by 53 MPAs, preventing a contested race. This arrangement was facilitated by the withdrawal of four PTI dissidents to avoid internal competition.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) supervised the process, which employed white, green, and pink ballot papers for general, technocrat, and women’s seats, respectively.
KP Senate Elections Postponement
The Senate elections in KP had been delayed for over a year, with the ECP issuing a notification just before polls were scheduled to commence on April 2, 2024. The delay was due to the oath non-compliance scandal and a related judgment by the Peshawar High Court (PHC).Initially, voting was planned for 48 Senate seats nationwide, including two from Islamabad, 12 from Punjab, 11 from KP, 12 from Sindh, and 11 from Balochistan. While elections were held in the National Assembly and other provincial assemblies, the KP Senate polls were postponed until now.
