PTI loses Islamabad seat in Senate elections, fares well overall

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Senate — Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan votes during the Senate elections on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Image Credit: PID

Islamabad: In a serious blow to the ruling party, the joint candidate of opposition parties and former premier, Yousaf Raza Gilani, won the crucial Senate seat from Islamabad, beating PTI’s Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, a well-known economist.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Yousaf Raza Gilani defeated his rival Hafeez Shaikh by five votes while seven votes were rejected in the high-profile contest between the two candidates. However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Fozia Arshad won the women’s seat from Islamabad after beating Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Farzana Kausar.

The Senate elections have been seen as a test for Prime Minister Imran Khan, who came to power in 2018 parliamentary elections. Khan had hoped to improve his standing in the 100-member Senate, where his party had only 15 seats entering the elections.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani Image Credit: AFP

Until recently, the upper house had 104 seats but four were abolished after the merger of former northwestern tribal regions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Both chambers of parliament have legislative powers, and any bill passed by the National Assembly must be approved by the Senate before it becomes a law. In turn, any legislations by the Senate goes to the National Assembly, where Khan has a simple majority.

Apart from the major setback, PTI witnessed a better performance in the overall results winning 15 new seats, raising its strength to 23 in the Senate, according to unofficial results. PPP won 7 new seats bringing its strength to 19 while PML-N won 5 new seats taking its tally to 18 seats in the upper house of the parliament, as per unofficial and unverified results. Another government ally Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) won six additional seats, reaching a total of 12 seats in the Senate. The opposition ally Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) gained two new seats, bringing its total to four seats.

As many as 78 candidates from different political parties contested the 2021 Senate elections. The polling started at 9am and continued till 5pm after which unverified results started pouring in. There was no polling in Punjab assembly where all Senate candidates were elected unopposed last month.

Election process

The Senate election in Pakistan is held through secret voting on the basis of single transferable vote through preference voting. Senators are elected by members of the country’s provincial and national assemblies. Each senator serves a term of six years but 50 per cent of the total number retire after every three years. Pakistan’s Senate will now comprise 100 lawmakers, 23 each from all the provinces and four from the federal capital territory.