By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek‑e‑Insaf (PTI) and four opposition parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have agreed to fill all 11 of the province’s Senate seats without contest, ironing out differences that had left the upper house of the parliament vacant for more than 17 months.
This rare consensus ensures that all candidates—six from the PTI and five from the opposition—will be elected without opposition, marking an unusual moment of cooperation in the country’s polarised political landscape and likely avoiding allegations of vote-buying in the Senate elections.
The agreement, finalised after late-night negotiations in the provincial capital, allocates four general seats, one technocrat seat, and one women’s seat to the ruling PTI. The opposition will secure three general seats, one technocrat seat, and one women’s seat.
The PTI’s slate includes prominent figures such as former minister Murad Saeed, former senator Faisal Javed, former deputy chairman of the Senate Mirza Khan Afridi, and former minister Pir Noor-ul-Haq Qadri for general seats, alongside Azam Khan Swati for the technocrat seat and Rubina Naz for the women’s seat.
The opposition’s nominees feature Maulana Ata-ul-Haq Darwish of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Niaz Muhammad of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Talha Mehmood of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for general seats, with Dilawar Khan of JUI-F and Rubina Khalid of PPP rounding out the technocrat and women’s seats, respectively.
This breakthrough follows more than 17 months of vacancies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Senate delegation, a delay triggered by legal disputes over the allocation of reserved seats in the provincial assembly.
A Supreme Court ruling on June 27 cleared the path for the elections, prompting the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to schedule polling for July 21. But with this agreement, the contest has been averted, a move Opposition Leader Dr. Ibadullah hailed as a resolution of all outstanding issues.
“The agreement on the distribution of seats has been reached. All issues have been resolved,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, in a video message recorded in the presence of opposition leaders, confirmed the consensus and underscored the collaborative effort. The negotiations, which spanned several secret meetings, culminated in a deal that officials say reflects a shared interest in avoiding horse‑trading ahead of the polls.
The Senate agreement caps a week of political maneuvering in the province. On Thursday, at the office of Provincial Election Commissioner Saeed Gul in Peshawar, the PML-N withdrew its candidate for a non-Muslim reserved seat in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in favor of the JUI-F’s Gorpal Singh.
The decision, formalised in the presence of PML-N provincial president Amir Muqam and JUI-F’s Maulana Attaur Rehman, propelled the JUI-F to the position of the largest opposition party in the assembly with 18 lawmakers.
Singh will now be notified as an MPA-elect by the ECP. In a separate development that day, the Awami National Party’s (ANP) Shahida Waheed won a women’s reserved seat through a draw against a candidate from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Parliamentarians (PTI-P).
ANP’s delegation, led by MPA Nisar Baz, and PTI-P’s, led by MPA Arbab Waseem, witnessed the process, after which ECP officials declared Waheed the victor. She, too, will be notified as an MPA-elect.
These shifts reconfigure the 145-member assembly’s opposition bloc, which now totals 52 lawmakers: 18 from JUI-F, 17 from PML-N, 10 from PPP, four from ANP, and three from PTI-P. The PTI, with its 92 members, retains its majority.
Among the 26 reserved seats for women, JUI-F and PML-N each hold nine, PPP has five, ANP has two, and PTI-P has one. For the four non-Muslim seats, JUI-F claims two, while PML-N and PPP each have one. The assembly’s new composition will be formalised in a session summoned for July 20, when the newly elected members on reserved seats are expected to take their oaths. That body will, in turn, shape the Senate elections, though, with the uncontested agreement, the outcome is already set.
Yet the deal has not been without friction. Within the PTI, discontent simmers over the Senate nomination process. Members including Irfan Saleem, Khurram Zeeshan, and Ayesha Bano, denied tickets, have refused to withdraw their candidacies and met with PTI Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja to voice their frustration.
Raja is slated to meet Gandapur later Friday, accompanied by the aggrieved leaders, to address their concerns. The party has also formed a three-member committee to manage internal dissent.
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