PML-N led ruling coalition sweeps Senate polls in Pak

Islamabad: Pakistan’s ruling coalition swept the Senate elections as the results of 19 seats were announced after the election process to fill 48 vacant seats of the upper house of the bi-cameral Parliament.

The alliance led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and other parties bagged 18 seats out of 19 while an independent candidate also was elected with their support.

Polling was held on 12 seats from Sindh, five seats from Punjab and two seats from the Islamabad capital territory. In Punjab, PML-N grabbed all seats while in Sindh, PPP got 10 seats and

one seat went to Muttahida Qaumi Movement and an independent candidate. The PML-N and the PPP won one seat each from Islamabad.

Eighteen candidates had already been elected unopposed, including eleven from Balochistan and seven from Punjab. Elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province were postponed due to controversy over oaths of members elected on reserved seats.

Foreign minister Ishaq Dar was elected senator after getting 224 votes in the National Assembly. His opponent Raja Ansar Mehmood from the opposition Sunni Ittehad Council got 81 votes.

Rana Mehmood ul Hassan of the Pakistan Peoples Party also won his seat by defeating Farzand Hussain Shah of the Sunni Ittehad Council.

Thus the ruling alliance won both senate seats from the Islamabad capital territory.

Prominent among the winners were PML-N-supported Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Petroleum Minister

Musadiq Malik who won in Punjab by garnering 128 and 121 votes, respectively. PML-N’s Khalil Tahir Sindhu was successful on a minority seat in Punjab while PPP’s Poonjo Bheel was successful on a minority seat in Sindh.