Supreme Court is the appropriate forum to decide about Senate elections due in March this year in case of dissolution of a provincial assembly or en bloc resignations from any provincial or National Assembly as the constitution does not allow by-elections after February 1, 2018. Legal and constitutional experts told Business Recorder on Saturday that the Constitution is silent on Senate elections in case of dissolution of any assembly; therefore, the Supreme Court remains the only platform to interpret the Constitution and issue directives for the elections.
Chaudhry Wasi Zafar, former Law Minister and a senior lawyer, said that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) cannot hold by-elections on any seat of a provincial assembly or National Assembly vacated after February 1. In case of en bloc resignations from any assembly after February 1, he said that any such move could put the Senate elections on hold and no option would be left with the political parties but to move the Supreme Court for a clear direction on the issue.
The ECP will announce Senate election schedule on February 2 for elections on 52 Senate seats to be vacated after retirement of 50 percent of the entire strength, 104 members, of the House. According to the present strength of the parties in the Senate, Pakistan Peoples Party is leading the House with 26 members, out of which 18 are set to retire, followed by PML-N with 27 members in the House with nine retiring on March 11.
Five senators of the ANP out of 6 are retiring, 5 independents are retiring out of total 10; three out of five senators of JUI-F and one member of PTI out of seven are going to retire. Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (4 senators), BNP-Awami (2 senators) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (one senator) will lose all their seats in the Senate as all their members are going to retire after completing their six year term.
PTI which got representation in the Senate for the first time in 2015 is set to almost double its representation after March elections. It is only senator Azam Khan Swati, who will be retiring in March as he was elected on a general seat from KP that fell vacant due to the death of ANP's Azam Khan Hoti in April 2015.
Given the party position in all the four provincial assemblies and the National Assembly, it is unlikely that the PML-Q would win any seat in the Senate. However, political experts believe that with the recent political developments in Balochistan and after the election of PML-Q's Abdul Quddos Bizenjo as the provincial chief minister despite having a mere four members in the provincial assembly the chances of the party's getting one or two seats from the province cannot be ruled out.
If the Senate elections are held as per the ECP's schedule, then the PML-N will emerge as a major political party in the Upper House due to its numerical strength in National Assembly as well as provincial assemblies. Talking to Business Recorder, former secretary ECP Kanwar Dilshad said it seemed Senate elections would be held on time and uncertainty about the Senate elections was always created by certain quarters.
He said that no party would dare to resign en bloc or dissolve an assembly just before the elections as the move would cost that party heavily in the general elections due to the backlash from media and people.
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