The legislators in four provincial assemblies and the National Assembly are voting today (Friday) to elect 45 senators for which 98 candidates are in the run. For this purpose, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has finalised all arrangements to hold elections at four provincial assemblies as well as the National Assembly.
Newly elected Senators will be replacing the 50 outgoing Senators who will retire on March 12 after completing their six-years term in the office. The ECP on Thursday declared seven more candidates as returned uncontested from Punjab and Sindh, beside two others who have already elected unopposed from Islamabad.
Whereas polling for electing 45 more senators would be held in four provincial assemblies and the National Assembly including four newly added Minority members to the Upper House of the Parliament under 18th Constitutional Amendment. From Punjab eight candidates including Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam Gill, M. Hamza, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa, Zaheer-ud-Din Baber, Kamil Ali Agha, Muhammad Zafar Ullah Khan, Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari and Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana will be contesting on seven general seats.
The candidates who have already returned uncontested from Punjab included Aitzaz Ahsan, Ishaq Dar, Nuzhat Sadiq, Khalida Perveen and Kamran Michael on two each seats reserved for Ulema and technocrats, and seats reserved for women as well as one seat for minorities, respectively.
In Sindh, eight candidates including Saeed Ghani, Syed Mustafa Kamal, Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah, Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, Colonel Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (Retd), Karim Ahmed Khawaja, Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamrah and Mian Raza Rabbani will contest on seven general seats. On two seats reserved for women the contestants will be Muddassir Sehar Kamran, Nasreen Jalil and Yasmeen Farukh while on one seat reserved for minorities Hari Ram and Photo Mal Dileep will face each other. From the province, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and Barrister Farogh Naseem have been declared as elected unopposed on two seats reserved for Ulema/technocrats.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 13 candidates are in the run for seven general seats, who are Ahmad Hassan, Baz Muhammad Khan, Haji Saifullah Khan Bangash, Syed Qasim Shah, Shah Faisal, Shahi Syed, Abdul Jalil Jan, Muhammad Azam Khan Hoti, Muhammad Talha Mahmood, Muhammad Ali Khan, Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, Maulana Ashraf Ali Marwat and Nisar Muhammad. On two seats reserved for women the contestants will be Begum Tahira Bukhari, Rubina Khalid, Zahida Khan and Naeem Akhtar.
On the two seats reserved for Ulema/technocrats Iqbal Zaffar Jhagra, Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, Rahat Hussain, Farhatullah Babar, Muhammad Intikhab Khan Chamkani and Muhammad Ali Khan Saif will contest the Senate election while on one seat reserved for minorities, two candidates Amar Jeet and Gul Zari Lal Singh will face each other.
In Balochistan 19 candidates including M. Akbar, Ayaz Khan Mandokhail, Advocate Muhammad Daud Khan Achakzai, Javed Iqbal Kurd, Jameel Ahmed, Haji Muhammad Wali, Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor, Haider Khan Nasir, Rozi Khan Kakar, Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani, Saeedul Hassan Mandokhail, Syed Nawab Shah, Tariq Baloch, Kahuda Babar Baloch, Muhammad Tahir Bezenjo, Muhammad Yousaf, Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri, Mir Shah Nawaz Khan Marri and Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi will be contesting on seven general seats.
Contestants on two seats reserved for women from Balochistan will be Agha Pari Gul Syeda, Parveen Akhtar Mengal, Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani, Robina Irfan, Sabina Rauf, Kishwar Ahmed, Mehr-ur-Nisa, Nasreen Rehman Khethran and Naseema Ehsan.
On two seats reserved for Ulema/technocrats, Engineer Basant Lal Gulshan, Agha Faisal, Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani, Rozi Khan Kakar, Abdul Jabbar Khan Kakar, Kamran Murtaza, Mufti Abdul Sattar and Malik Taj Muhammad Bazai will contest Senate elections while five candidates Benish Sikandar Masih Dr Ashok Kumar, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Hinna and Heman Dass will be in the run for one seat reserved for minorities.
From Fata, Hammed Ullah Jan Afridi, Dr Aurangzeb Khan, Sahibzada Abdul Salam Shirani, Abdul Malik Qadri, Abdul Waheed Khan, Muhammad Saleh Shah, Malik Abdur Rehman, Malik Najmul Hassan, Munir Khan Orakzai, Hadayat Ullah and Hilal-ur-Rehman will contest election on four general seats for the Senate. On two seats from federal capital, one general and one seat reserved for Ulema/technocrats, Osman Saifullah and Mushahid Hussain Syed have been declared returned uncontested, respectively.
Polling for Senate seats from provinces will be held at provincial assemblies while MNAs from FATA will be voting in the Parliament House. Meanwhile, the ECP drew attentions of the members of National Assembly from FATAs and members of all the Provincial Assemblies that under Article 226 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, which envisages that all elections shall be held by secret ballot.
The Commission, in this regard, has directed that the Returning Officers for Senate elections to ensure that the secrecy of the ballot is not violated through any mode whatsoever by the voters and has also imposed ban upon Members of the National Assembly from FATAs and all Provincial Assemblies for taking with them mobile phone or any other electronic device, through which picture can be taken, in the premises of the polling i-e Assembly Chamber by the Members of the National Assembly from Fata and the members of the Provincial Assemblies on the March 2, 2012, the poll day for that elections.
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