The Senate was back to its full strength on Monday after the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly elected 11 members to the Upper House through a seat-adjustment formula that saw the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secure six seats and the opposition five.
The seat adjustment drew severe criticism from certain elements of the PTI, who accused Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of “gifting” the opposition one seat higher than merited to avoid an election. In his defense, several PTI leaders have alleged a risk of MPAs voting against party discipline, adding this formula ensured the PTI’s preferred candidates reached the Senate.
Also on Monday, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)’s Hafiz Abdul Kareem secured a Senate seat vacated following the death of Sajid Mir. Of the 345 votes cast, Kareem secured 243 against opposition candidate Mehr Abdul Sattar’s 99 votes. Three votes were rejected.
The Senate had been incomplete since the Feb. 8, 2024 elections due to litigation over reserved seats in Parliament stemming from the Sunni Ittehad Council failing to submit a list of reserved seats’ candidates or having a single seat in the National Assembly while a majority of PTI-backed candidates had joined it after the polls. Last month, the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench ruled in favor of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s ruling, granting the contested reserved seats to all remaining parliamentary parties.
The Senate polls in KP nonetheless sparked controversy as five disgruntled PTI candidates initially refused to withdraw their candidacies, potentially derailing the seat adjustment agreement. Several rounds of negotiation between the dissidents and the party leadership resulted in four of them withdrawing their candidacies at the last minute though one—Khurram Zeeshan—remained in the field but failed to secure a single vote.
Ultimately, the PTI won four general seats—Murad Saeed, Mirza Afridi, Faisal Javed, Noorul Haq Qadri—and two reserved seats, one for women (Rubina Naz) and one for technocrats (Azam Swati). From the opposition, PPP’s Talha Mehmood, PMLN’s Niaz Ahmed, and JUIF’s Attaul Haq secured general seats, while Robina Khalid won the reserved seat for women and Dilawar Khan the reserved seat for technocrats.
Reportedly, the parties ensured discipline through a “vote swapping” arrangement that saw lawmakers providing each MPA with a marked ballot in exchange for their unmarked ballot.