Faisal Vawda & Ishaq Dar win seats as polling for Senate elections concludes

The election for Senate members to occupy 30 seats for a six-year term has concluded. The contest featured 59 candidates vying for positions in the Upper House.

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar secured a technocrat seat with 224 votes, defeating Raja Ansar, who received 81 votes. It’s reported that there were five spoiled ballots.

PPP’s Rana Mahmoodul Hasan also grabbed a Senate seat with 224 votes, while his rival, Farzand Hussain, managed to get 79 votes. Out of 310 ballots cast, seven were invalidated.

Independent Faisal Vawda, along with MQM’s Aamir Chishti, PPP’s Ashraf Ali Jatoi, Dost Ali Jaiser, PPP’s Kazim Ali Shah, Masroor Hassan, and Nadeem Bhutto were elected as Senators on general seats.

PPP’s Sarmad Ali and Zameer Ghamro successfully secured the two technocrat seats. Rubina Qaimkhani and Quratul Ain Marri won the seats designated for women, while PPP’s Poonjo Bheel triumphed in the minority seat category.

In the Punjab Assembly, Muhammad Aurangzeb and Dr. Musadik Malik won the technocrat seats with Aurangzeb receiving 128 votes and Malik 121 votes. The opposition PTI’s Dr. Yasmin Rashid got 106 votes.

In the Sindh Assembly, independent candidates supported by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamaat-e-Islami boycotted the elections. Out of 12 available seats, PPP secured 10 Senate seats, while MQM and an independent candidate obtained one seat each.

Polling stations were set up in the National Assembly and the Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies. Voting began on time at 9 am, and the first vote in the National Assembly was cast by PML-N MNA Saad Wasim.