ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of the Parliament will have elections this month on its 13 vacant seats falling in two provinces, as the electoral body has announced to hold the elections on 12 Senate seats on 21st July, and the remaining one seat on 31st July.
Conspicuously, the ECP’s notification, issued on Friday, regarding Senate elections on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seats came two days after the poll body allotted 25 reserved seats in KP Assembly, that were claimed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to other political parties, in pursuance of Supreme Court’s order in the reserved seats case — a scenario that has considerably dented the ruling PTI’s strength in the provincial assembly.
Of the 13 vacant seats, the Senate elections are taking place on seven general seats, two women seats and two technocrats seats of KP on 21st July.
Ruling coalition given two-thirds majority as ECP notifies reserved seats
On the same date, election is also scheduled on a general Senate seat from Punjab that got vacated following the death of Sajid Mir from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N).
The election on a Senate woman seat from KP, that fell vacant following the resignation of Sania Nishtar from PTI, would be held on 31st July, as per the ECP’s notification.
The 11 Senate seats from KP were lying vacant since march last year after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) did not hold elections on these seats over its row with speaker KP Assembly on reserved seats oath issue.
In an order issued then, the ECP said it shall be “constrained to postpone” the Senate polls on KP seats if the speaker KPA did not administer oath to five women lawmakers-elect of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) on the reserved seats in the provincial assembly.
On 2nd April, last year, just when the Senate elections were scheduled, the ECP issued an allegedly controversial order to postpone the Senate elections on 11 KP seats citing the oath non-administering controversy, and a related order of Peshawar High Court (PHC) in this regard.
Originally, polling was scheduled on 48 Senate seats, comprising of 12 seats each of Punjab and Sindh, 11 seats each of KP and Balochistan, and two seats of Islamabad.
But, with the unopposed election of senators on 11 seats of Balochistan and seven seats of Punjab, and the polls postponement on 11 KP seats, the Senate elections were finally held on only 19 seats on 2nd April 2024.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.