ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Senate elections will take place on March 5 instead of March 3, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Earlier, the polling for 52 seats of the 104-member upper house was scheduled to be held on March 3. However, the sources said that more time was needed for scrutiny of the candidates, therefore the elections were delayed.
Meanwhile, the process of election to 52 Senate seats has begun on Thursday (today) with the filing of nomination papers. The nomination papers will be received by Friday.
The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on the February 16 and 17.
The appeals can be filed against rejection of nominations on February 20 and 21 while appeals will be disposed of on February 23 and 24 and final list of candidates will be issued on the February 25.
The polls will be held in National Assembly as well as in four Provincial Assemblies on March 5 as 52 Senators will retire on March 11 in the upper house of the bicameral Parliament.
The 52 Senators who are retiring on March 11 include 21 lawmakers from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), eight from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), six from Awami National Party (ANP), three each from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), two from Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A) and one each from Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Pakhtun-khwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and National Party (NP).
