PTI wins two seats from Punjab in Senate by-elections

Ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has won two Senate seats from Punjab in the by-elections held today (Thursday).

PTI Walid Iqbal defeated PML-N’s Saud Majeed on the general Senate seat while PTI’s Seemee Ezdi and defeated N-League’s Saira Afzal Tarar for a reserved seat of woman.

The polling for Senate by-election on two seats from Punjab was held with provincial Election Commissioner Zafar Iqbal Hussain as the Returning Officer.

Polling continued from 9 am to 4 pm without any break at the Punjab Assembly building which was declared the polling station.

These two senate seats from Punjab had fallen vacant after Sadia Abbasi and Haroon Akhter Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-N were denotified for holding dual-nationality.

As many as 367 Members Punjab Assemebly (MPAs) cast their votes out of a total number of 371.

PTI and the allies had 194 votes as compared to 173 votes of the PML-N.

The Senate seats fell vacant after Sadia Abbasi, sister of former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and Haroon Akhtar Khan were disqualified by the Supreme Court for holding dual nationalities at the time of filing their nomination papers for the upper house of the Parliament.

The Punjab Assembly is comprised of 371 members; the remaining two seats lie vacant as Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is yet to take oath as provincial lawmaker while PP-168 await by-elections after being vacated by Khawaja Saad Rafique.

Previously, according to the data available on the Punjab Assembly website, the PTI had a total strength of 180 members in the house while its ally, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), had 10 seats – bringing the tally up to 190 votes.

The number game also did not appear to be in the PML-N’s favour despite Pakistan Peoples Party’s support. The Shehbaz Sharif-led party had a total of 167 members while PPP had seven members.

There are a total of four independent candidates in the House.