By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR, : The treasury and opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province divided 11 Senate seats in a compromise vote on Monday, with the treasury taking six and the opposition five, unofficial results showed.
The outcome followed a seat-sharing deal between the government and opposition, ending months of delay and political wrangling, though tensions within the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over its candidate list cast a shadow over the process.
The elections filled 11 Senate seats: seven general, two reserved for women, and two for ulema and technocrats. The treasury, backed by 92 members in the KP Assembly, secured six seats, while the opposition, with 53 members, claimed five. The arrangement, agreed upon in advance, averted a potential three-way clash that had loomed among PTI, a small faction of PTI dissidents, and opposition lawmakers. By Sunday, the dissident group had shrunk to a single candidate, paving the way for a largely two-way contest.
PTI candidates swept several general seats. Murad Saeed led with 26 votes, followed by Mirza Afridi and Faisal Javed, each with 22 votes, and Noorul Haq Qadri with 21 votes. Azam Swati won a technocrat seat with a commanding 89 votes, while Rubina Naz secured a women’s seat with an equal tally.
The opposition also notched victories. Niaz Ahmed, son of Federal Minister for Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir Affairs and States and Frontier Regions Amir Muqam, won a general seat with 18 votes. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) saw Talha Mehmood elected on a general seat with 18 votes and Rubina Khalid triumph on a women’s seat with 52 votes. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) rounded out the opposition wins, with Attaul Haq taking a general seat with 18 votes and Dilawar Khan claiming a technocrat seat with 54 votes.
The elections, originally slated for April 2024, were stalled due to an incomplete electoral college, plunging the province into political uncertainty. The logjam broke earlier this month when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) set July 21 as the polling date, following a Supreme Court verdict that redistributed reserved seats in the KP Assembly. The ruling stripped the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) of 25 seats, reallocating them to parties including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), PPP, JUI-F, PTI-Parliamentarians (PTI-P), and the Awami National Party (ANP).
The redistribution paved the way for Sunday’s swearing-in of 25 opposition members of the KP Assembly, administered by Governor Faisal Karim Kundi. Their inclusion completed the electoral college, enabling Monday’s Senate polls. A separate election for a seat vacated by Senator Sania Nishtar is scheduled for July 31, while polling for another seat, left vacant by the death of Professor Sajid Mir, also occurred on July 21.
The elections were not without controversy. Within PTI, allegations surfaced that senior leaders, including Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and KP government spokesperson Barrister Saif, manipulated the party’s Senate candidate list and withheld it from founder Imran Khan.
Geo News reported that the KP chapter submitted a list on July 15 featuring Murad Saeed, Irfan Saleem, Faisal Javed, and Khurram Zeeshan, but excluded Mirza Afridi. Instead, Barrister Saif reportedly consulted on alternative names, fueling claims of interference.
Barrister Gohar pushed back against the accusations. “I neither altered the names nor concealed the list from the party founder,” he said. The episode underscored simmering divisions within PTI, even as its candidates dominated the results.
In a related development, a by-election for a vacant Senate seat in Punjab saw PML-N’s Hafiz Abdul Kareem emerge victorious with 243 votes out of 345 polled, with three ballots rejected. Nominated as the emir of Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadith, Kareem credited his win to party leaders. “I thank Mian Nawaz Sharif, who always remained loyal to Jamiat Ahle Hadith,” he said in a speech after the results. He also praised Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. “She left work in the flood-affected areas and cast her vote for me.”
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