PPP grabs four out of six Senate seats in by-elections

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) secured four out of six Senate seats in the by-elections on Thursday.Polling for a vacant Senate seat from Islamabad took place in the National Assembly hall.

PPP candidate Yousaf Raza Gilani won with 204 votes, with Sunni Ittehad Council’s Chaudhary Ilyas Mehrban coming in second with 88 votes.

In the Sindh Assembly, PPP candidates Jam Saifullah Dharijo and Aslam Abro were announced as victors with 58 and 57 votes, respectively. Both SIC’s Nazirullah and Shazia Sohail received 4 votes each. A total of 124 Sindh MPAs, comprising 116 from the PPP and 8 from the SIC, participated in the vote.

The vacancies for both seats arose following the resignations of Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and Jam Mehtab Dahar from the Pakistan People’s Party.

In Balochistan, the PPP’s Mir Abdul Qudus Bizenjo won with 23 votes, while both JUI-F’s Abdul Shakoor Khan Ghaibai and PML-N’s Mir Dostain Domki were also pronounced winners for the Senate’s empty seats.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) opted to abstain from participating in the Senate by-elections, and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) similarly boycotted the event.

At the same time, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) found itself once again sidelined, contending with the loss of its electoral emblem in the legislative arena.

According to the rules of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), only political parties possessing electoral symbols are permitted to contest in the Senate elections, as per the same regulations that apply to general elections.