Bidding Before Senate Election Has Gained Pace

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is willing to conduct the Senate election through the open ballot for the first time as it doubts that the bidding of the lawmakers has gained pace in an attempt to ‘buy’ seats of the upper house.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), a lawmaker can deposit a maximum of Rs 1.5 million in the bank account opened for the Senate election.

However, it has never been the case.

There have been multiple instances when the political parties have fewer members in the national and provincial legislatures but retained more seats in the upper house.

This mainly happens due to the horse-trading in the Senate election.

This is the main fear of the PTI government as it believes that the bidding of the lawmakers has started right before a month of the Senate election.

According to the political analysts, the members of the Balochistan Assembly are the most important in bringing the senators followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and then Sindh and Punjab.

They added that it was the reason that most of the complaints of horse-trading or purchase of consciences were received from KP and Balochistan assemblies.

Cost of one seat

The mainstream politicians assert that up to Rs 200 million are usually spend to turn the vote of a rival party member in favor.

They claimed that for the Senate Election due next month, the bidding rate has escalated up to Rs 350 million.

Interior minister’s opinion

The Minister for Narcotics Control Aijaz Shah also surmised that the bidding for Senate election has gained pace while Senator Shibli Faraz holds the same view.

Current number of Senators

There is a total of 104 seats in the upper house of the parliament.

However, as the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (N) leader Ishaq Dar did not take the oath as a senator in 2018, the existing number of senators in 103.

Of them, 48 will retire in the second week of March.

Proportion of seats

Sindh and Punjab assemblies would elect 11 Senators each while KP and Balochistan would elect 12 each in the Senate election next month.

After the inclusion of erstwhile Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) in KP province, there would be no election on four seats to be vacated by the senators of the tribal areas next month as they would complete their six-year term.

Alarm bell for opposition

Around 65% of Senators retiring on March 11 after completing their six years term belong to the opposition parties.

According to the current proportion, some 52 of 104 senators would retire. Among them, 34 would be from the opposition parties while 18 belong to the ruling PTI.

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PTI Rolls Up Sleeves to Win Senate Election

PML-N would experience a big blow as 17 of 30 senators of the opposition belong to the party.

PTI could emerge as the largest party in the upper house with 28 seats if all of its members voted for it.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) can get 19 seats while PML-N would get 18 seats if the above condition is followed.