Voting underway for 11 senate seats in KPK Assembly

PESHAWAR: Voting is underway for the 11 Senate seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with 25 candidates in the race.

Members of the Assembly are currently casting their votes in the ongoing election process. Since the start of the polling, a total of 108 votes have been recorded.

For general seats, Murad Saeed, Faisal Javed, Mirza Afridi, and Pir Noor-ul-Haq Qadri are PTI candidates.

For the women's seat, Rubina Naz is the candidate, and for the technocrat seat, Azam Swati is the candidate.

On the opposition side, Niaz Ahmad from PML-N and Talha Mahmud from PPP are the candidates for general seats. Additionally, Ata-ullah-Haq from JUI-F is also a candidate for a general seat.

For the women's seat, Rubina Khalid from PPP is the opposition candidate, and for the technocrat seat, Dilaawar Khan from JUI-F is the candidate.

To prevent horse-trading, the government and opposition have reached a mutual understanding to divide the seats based on a 6-5 formula.

As per the agreement, six seats have been allocated to the government while the opposition will receive five.

There are 4 government candidates in the general seats from KP and 3 opposition candidates, while 2, 2 candidates for the government and the opposition are nominated for women and technocrats.

The number of government members in the KP Assembly is 92, while the opposition has the support of 53 members, 19 votes are needed for the general seat while 49 votes for women and technocrats.

The opposition will need 4 votes to win the third general seat, Khurram Zeeshan is in the field after the withdrawal of 4 of the 5 angry members.

On the other hand, polling is underway for the vacant seat of the Senate from Punjab and so far 103 members have cast their votes.

Punjab Assembly has been designated polling station for polling with the Provincial Election Commissioner will perform the duties of Punjab Returning Officer, 369 of the 371 House are eligible to vote.

Following the demise of Professor Sajid Mir, the Ameer of Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadees Pakistan, the Senate seat left vacant is being contested by multiple candidates.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has nominated Hafiz Abdul Karim as its candidate, while the opposition parties have fielded Mehr Abdul Sattar.

In addition, two independent candidates — Khadija Siddiqi and Ejaz Hussain — are also in the race.

After the recent Senate elections, the ruling coalition has secured a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has emerged as the largest party in the Senate with 26 seats.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is the second-largest parliamentary party with 16 senators, and it also has the support of 6 independent senators.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) holds the third position with 20 senators.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) now has a total of 7 seats in the Senate.

The Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) has 4 seats, while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have 3 seats each.