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Analysis: Senate elections: who will form majority in the Upper House? By Ansar Mahmood Bhatti

ISLAMABAD: Except Karachi , all political parties seem to have won their seats in the Senate elections with PML getting most of the Senate seats. In Karachi MQM has almost been wiped out in the current Senate elections while in KPK PTI also has not been able to win all seats.

In Balochistan the ruling party has won 4 seats. This ruling party thought belongs to PML N but this the dissident group of PMLN that revolted sometime ago and formed a new government, is unlikely to support PML N in the Senate when it comes to election of the Chairman Senate.

In Punjab PTI’s Ch Sarwar won his seat, which may be alarming for PMLN because its candidate lost despite having majority in the Punjab Assembly.

According to analysis the incumbent Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani yet again can contest for Chairman Senate seat and in the given circumstances PPP may get its Chairman elected because PML N despite being the leading party in Senate will not be able to get majority in Senate therefore it has to make alliances with small parties.

PMLN however will try its best to have its candidate elected for the coveted slot of Senate Chairman and Raja Zafarul Haq, in this case, may be a consensus candidate nevertheless the question is whether PML N shall be able to woo PPP and on what terms and conditions? Mushahid Hussain is yet another strong candidate for Senate chairmanship from PML N.

Legal experts say PML N ordeal is not yet over. According to their point of view the PML N candidates had no legal grounds to take part in the Senate elections after the Supreme Court verdict, in which it declared Nawaz Sharif ineligible to hold office of the President of PML N. Consequently all his nominations, after the court verdict, stood null and void.

Therefore it is expected that in coming days election of PMLN backed candidates may be challenged in the court of law questioning the authority of the Election Commission of Pakistan as to how it could allow these candidates to contest election independently.

So, the game is still on. Let’s get ready for some interesting times ahead?






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