ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The polling is in progress at the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies on Thursday to fill 48 vacant seats of Senate as four Senators have already been elected unopposed from Sindh.
The voting is being held through secret ballot and will continue till 4:00 pm
Half members of the 104-member upper house are retiring on March 11, and in order to fill their vacant seats a total of 132 candidates are in the run in Senate polls.
Four Senator from Sindh including two from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) each have already been elected unopposed.
The sources said that the members of the National Assembly will elect two Senators from Islamabad while the lawmakers from the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) will elect four Senators.
The polling to elect representatives in Senate from all four provinces also continues at each provincial assembly.
Meanwhile, the PPP has criticized the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) members of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly for violating rules and regulations in polling for the Senate election.
Talking to newsmen in Peshawar on Thursday, the PPP member in the assembly Nighat Orakzai said that polling was suspended twice due to irresponsible behaviour of members of the two parties.
The members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) accused the PTI and JI MPAs for taking their ballot papers out of the polling booth to demonstrate their loyalty to their respective leadership.
The polling for Senate seats in the Punjab assembly was also suspended amid rigging allegations.
Talking to media representatives in Lahore, the PPP leader and former MPA Raja Riaz said that ballot papers were being forcibly marked in the provincial assembly.
Earlier, a presidential ordinance was issued under which the members from the FATA will be entitled to cast only one vote. According to the notification, the previous presidential ordinance of 2002 that allowed four votes to each FATA members had been withdrawn.
