Peshawar, JUL 21: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has won six of the 11 Senate seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while opposition parties jointly bagged five, according to unofficial and unconfirmed results of the Senate elections held in the provincial assembly.
Polling was held for all 11 seats, and all 145 members of the KP Assembly cast their votes. On the general seats, PTI candidates Murad Saeed, Faisal Javed, Mirza Afridi, and Noorul Haq Qadri were declared winners, securing 26, 22, and 21 votes respectively.
The opposition succeeded on the remaining three general seats, with victories for PML-N’s Niaz Ahmad, PPP’s Talha Mehmood, and JUI-F’s Atta-ul-Haq.
For the two women’s reserved seats, PTI’s Rubina Naz won with 89 votes, while PPP’s Rubina Khalid secured the second seat. On technocrat seats, PTI’s Azam Swati and JUI-F’s Dilawar Khan emerged victorious.
With these results, PTI has clinched four general seats, one technocrat seat, and one women’s seat.
The opposition — comprising PML-N, PPP, and JUI-F — shared the remaining five seats: three general, one technocrat, and one women’s.
Earlier, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur succeeded in convincing four dissident party members to withdraw from the Senate contest, salvaging a “PTI vs. PTI” situation in the election for the Upper House.
The chief minister held extensive talks with the disgruntled leaders, which went on past midnight. Khurram Zeeshan — another disgruntled leader — refused to withdraw and contested the election.
However, Zeeshan failed to get a single vote in the elections.
The swearing-in ceremony of KP reserved seats MPAs on Sunday cleared the path for long-delayed Senate elections.
Punjab Assembly
In the Punjab Assembly Senate by-election, PML-N candidate Hafiz Abdul Karim secured victory with 243 votes, according to unofficial and unconfirmed results.
His rival, opposition candidate Mehr Abdul Sattar, received 99 votes.
Out of a total of 368 members, 345 votes were cast, with three votes rejected. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz also cast her vote.
Polling, which began at 9am, continued until 4pm, with the Punjab Assembly designated as the polling station. The Provincial Election Commissioner served as the returning officer for the election.
This seat had fallen vacant following the death of Professor Sajid Mir, leader of the Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith Pakistan.
Contesting for the seat were Karim (PML-N), Mehr Abdul Sattar (opposition), and two independent candidates — Khadija Siddiqi and Ijaz Hussain.
‘Candidate list withheld from PTI founder’
Separately, sources told Geo News that fresh controversy has emerged within PTI over alleged manipulation of the Senate candidate list for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with senior party leaders accused of concealing the list from the party’s founder Imran Khan.
According to sources, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, KP government spokesperson Barrister Saif, and the central leadership allegedly withheld the list sent by the KP chapter on July 15, which did not include the name of Mirza Afridi.
The list reportedly featured names such as Murad Saeed, Irfan Saleem, Faisal Javed, and Khurram Zeeshan among seven recommended candidates. Instead of submitting the KP leadership’s list, consultations were held by Barrister Saif on alternative names.
Barrister Gohar, however, denied the allegations, saying that he neither altered the names nor concealed the list from the party founder.
