All candidates from Punjab were elected unopposed for the Senate elections, South Punjab News reported.However,there is tough contest between former Prime Minister & PPP nominee Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and Federal Finance Minister Dr. Hafeez Ahmed Sheikh
According to sources in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), those elected included five candidates from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), five from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and one from the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
Sources revealed that the announcement in this regard would be made after March 3.
Names of the candidates who were elected from Punjab: Azam Nazir Tarar (PML-N), Syed Ali Zafar (PTI), Dr Zarqa (PTI), Sadia Abbasi (PML-N), Sajid Mir (PML-N), Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui (PML-N), Ijaz Chaudhry (PTI), Aun Abbas (PTI), Saifullah Sarwar Niazi (PTI), Afnanullah Khan (PML-N) and Kamil Ali Agha (PML-Q),
Afnanullah Khan is the son of senior PML-N leader Mushahidullah who passed away on February 18.
Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari took to Twitter to congratulate candidates from the PTI who got elected unopposed.
"Congratulations to our new Senators from Punjab," she wrote.
The Senate polls are to be held on March 3. According to the ECP schedule, polling will be held between 9am to 5pm.
It should be noted that 52 senators will retire on March 11; however, elections will be held for 48 Senate seats. Thus, the number of members of the upper house will become 100.
The ECP has accepted 141 nomination papers for these 48 seats from across the country; 21 from Punjab, 40 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 35 from Balochistan, 35 from Sindh and nine from Islamabad.
Elections for the Senate will be based on proportional representation and a single transferable vote.
Polling will be held in Sindh for 11 seats, Balochistan and K-P for 12 seats each and Islamabad for two seats.
While the upper house currently has a total of 104 members – half of whom retire every three years – the merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with K-P means the four seats reserved for the former will retire with the senators who hold them.
