PPP wins four, PML-N, JUI-F one seat each in Senate by-polls

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) bagged four Senate seats, the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) succeed to win once seat each in the byelections Thursday, according to the initial results.

The polling for the six Senate seats in the National, Sindh and Balochistan Assemblies began at 9am and ended at 4pm.

These six seats had fallen vacant under Article 223 of the Constitution which prohibits lawmakers from holding dual membership.

The sub-section 4 of the article states: "Subject to clause (2) if a member of either House or of a Provincial Assembly becomes a candidate for a second sear which, in accordance with clause (1), he may not hold concurrently with his first seat, then his first seat shall become vacant as soon as he is elected to the second seat."

In Sindh, 124 votes were cast during the polling held to fill the two vacant general seats of the upper house.

After the count, PPP's Jam Saifullah Khan Dharejo and Muhammad Aslam Abro managed to get elected to the Senate by obtaining 58 and 57 votes respectively. While Nazeerullah and Shazia Sohail of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) were only able to get 4 votes each.

During the count, one vote was rejected. The seats had fallen vacant as PPP senators

Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and Jam Mehtab Dahar were elected to the Sindh Assembly in the February 8 general elections.

Provincial Election Commissioner, Sindh, Sharifullah, acted as the returning officer in the SIndh Assembly.

In today's election the Muttahid Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Jamat-eIslami (JI) two opposition parties in the Sindh Assembly boycotted the polling, sources told Geo News without elaborating further.

Meanwhile, in the Balochistan Assembly 61 votes were cast for the three general seats of the Senate from the province.

A total of seven candidates were running for three seats.

However, PPP's Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, PML-N's Mir Dostain Khan Domki and JUIF's Abdul Shakoor Khan managed to win the elections. Bizenjo bagged 23 votes, Domki got 17 while the JUI-F's candidate got elected with 16 votes.