KARACHI:
The ruling coalition at the Centre won by-elections for five of the six Senate seats, with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) taking the majority of the seats.
Polling for the six Senate seats in the National, Sindh, and Balochistan assemblies began at 9 a.m. and concluded at 4 p.m.
These six seats had become empty due to Article 223 of the Constitution, which prevents parliamentarians from holding dual membership.
The article’s sub-section 4 states: “Subject to clause (2), if a member of either House or of a Provincial Assembly becomes a candidate for a second seat that, in accordance with clause (1), he may not retain concurrently with his first position, then his first seat shall become vacant as soon as he is elected to the second seat.”
Islamabad
In the National Assembly, PPP’s Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani was able to maintain the seat he had previously secured.
Gilani, a joint candidate of the ruling coalition of six parties, received 204 votes out of 301 cast, while his Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) challenger, Ilyas Mehrban, received only 88 votes.
Nine votes were rejected throughout the voting process.
The seat for which the elections were held today became vacant after Gillani was elected MNA in the February 8 elections.
The PPP leader has been tipped to be the Senate chairman.
Sindh
In Sindh, 124 votes were cast to fill the upper house’s two vacant general seats.
Following the count, PPP candidates Jam Saifullah Khan Dharejo and Muhammad Aslam Abro were elected to the Senate with 58 and 57 votes, respectively.
While Nazeerullah and Shazia Sohail of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) received only four votes apiece.
