Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has emerged as the largest party in the Senate securing 27 seats out of 100 in the upper house of the parliament. PPP is followed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) which had highest strength in the Senate during its previous tenure managing to retain 21 seats.
Polling for 19 vacant seats of the Senate was held on Wednesday in Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar, whereas candidates against 31 seats in Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Islamabad had earlier managed to enter the house unopposed. According to unofficial results, Dr Saeeda Iqbal has secured seat unopposed on the women's seat from the federal capital.
In Balochistan, where polling was held for all the 11 seats, Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani and Sabir Baluch of PPP; Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani of JUI(F); Mir Hasal Khan Bizenjo of Balochistan National Party; Muhammad Ali Rind of BNP (Awami) and Wali Muhammad Badini and Nawabzada Akbar Magsi Independent candidates were elected against general seats.
Against seats reserved for women, Surriya Ameeruddin of PPP and Kulsoom Parveen, Independents were declared successful in Balochistan. Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri of JUI(F) and Muhammad Humayun Khan Mandokhel, an Independent candidate was elected against technocrat seats.
In the NWFP, PPP's Farhat Abbas and ANP's Farah Aqil were declared successful against seats reserved for women while PPP's Adnan Khan and ANP's Afrasayab Khattak were elected against technocrat seats. For four seats from Fata, Engineer Rashid Ahmad Khan, Abbas Khan, Haji Khan and Idrees Khan Safi were declared successful.
Polling for Fata seats was held in Islamabad and 12 MNAs from Fata elected the senators. At present, PPP 27, PML-Q 21, The JUI 10, PML-N 7, ANP 6, MQM 6, MMA 3, Fata 8 and the other smaller parties have 12 senators in the upper house of the parliament.
According to a statement issued by Election Commission here on Wednesday, Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan has informed that for Elections to the Senate in NWFP and Balochistan as well as FATA, Polling has been completed and result of the Poll is being declared by the concerned Returning Officers after the Count of Votes.
It further informed that the names of the returned candidates against seats reserved for women and technocrats/ulema in the Senate from NWFP and against General seats and seats reserved for women and technocrats/ulema from Balochistan Province as well as general seats from Fata will be notified by Chief Election Commissioner of after receipt of returns of Election expenses from the successful candidates.