144 aspirants vying for 52 Senate seats as nomination deadline ends

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has received 144 nomination papers for the March 3 Senate elections.

According to details, a total of 52 senators in the house of 104 will be retiring after the completion of their six-year term.

The last date to file nomination papers was February 8, and the submitted documents will be analyzed before February 12. Any aspirant wishing to withdraw their nomination papers may do so until February 19, while polling will be held on March 3.

“A total of 34 nomination forms were submitted from Punjab, of which 21 forms were submitted for general seats, five for reserved seats for women, five for technocrat seats, and three for reserved seats for minorities.”

The number of nomination forms submitted from Sindh totals 47, out of which 23 were submitted for general seats, 11 for reserved seats for technocrats, nine for women and four for reserved seats for minorities.

A total of 28 nomination forms were submitted from Balochistan, 15 out of these 28 forms were submitted against general seats, seven for reserved technocrat seats, and six for women-specific seats.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 34 nomination forms were submitted in total. Out of these, 20 forms were submitted against general seats, six for reserved seats for technocrats and eight for reserved seats for women. Whereas, not a single nomination form was submitted from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and only one nomination for technocrat seat was submitted from Islamabad.

The schedule for Senate polls for the seats from the federal capital and FATA was withheld due to procedural hitches stated to be the presidencies failure to extend the Elections Act 2017 to FATA through an order and determining the manner in which polling is to be held for the aforementioned seats, under Article 59 of the constitution.

A confirmation that polling for all 52 Senate seats will take place on March 3 came later after the schedule for seats from Islamabad was ann­ounc­ed on Feb 4, as well as, the announcement of the schedule for FATA seats.

By the looks of it, PPP seems to be the biggest loser, the reason being 18 of the party’s senators, including Chairman Raza Rabbani being replaced by newcomers.

Although nine senators from the ruling PML-N are also retiring, the party is still expected to gain seats by the exercise, despite the recent brouhaha in the Balochistan Assembly which saw PML-Q’s Abdul Quddus Bizenjo replacing PML-N’s Sanaullah Zehri for the chief minister slot.

Elections will be held for seven general and four reserved seats from each province, including two each for women and technocrats, four seats from Fata, two from Islamabad and two minority seats.

The 52 members who are due to retire in March include Senate Chairman Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, Deputy Chairman Sabir Ali Baloch, Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed, National Party chief Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, PML-N chairman Raja Mohammad Zafarul Haq, former interior minister Rehman Malik, former chairman of senate Farooq H. Naek, former law minister Moula Bux Chandio, Islamuddin Sheikh, parliamentary leader of MQM in the Senate Babar Ghauri, Afrasiab Khatak, Haji Adeel, Zahid Khan, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri, Mushahidullah Khan and Syed Zafar Ali Shah.