KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Nisar Ahmed Khuhro was elected senator on a seat from Sindh that fell vacant after the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Faisal Vawda.
The polling was held on Wednesday in the Sindh Assembly building and continued until 4PM without any interval. According to unofficial results, Khuhro won the seat after bagging 99 votes out of 101 while two votes were rejected,
Although the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Agha Arsalan had filed nomination papers for the seat, the PTI and its allies had announced to boycott the election. Despite the boycott, two PTI MPAs voted for PPP candidate Nisar Khuhro.
Shortly after the announcement of Khuhro’s win, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari took to Twitter to congratulate the senior party member. “Congratulations, Senator elect, Nisar Ahmad Khuhro,” wrote Bilawal.
A day earlier, PTI’s Sindh president and Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi tweeted, “The PTI-led opposition will boycott tomorrow’s [March 9] Senate election in Sindh Assembly on seat vacated due to Faisal Vawda’s disqualification.”
On Feb 9, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had disqualified Vawda for lifetime under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution for concealing his foreign nationality during the 2018 general elections.
An ECP bench, led by Chief Election Commissioner Faisal Sultan Raja, disqualified Vawda and asked him to return the salary and other benefits he had received as a minister and a National Assembly member within two months. He was also de-notified as a senator.
The former federal minister had approached the Supreme Court to call off the elections on the upper house seat. The court ruled that the result of the Senate election due on March 9 will be subject to judicial orders.
