QUETTA: The Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), the ruling party in the province, has become the fourth largest party in the Senate after winning seven more seats of the upper house from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to unofficial results of Wednesday’s Senate elections, the BAP now has 12 seats in the upper house.

The ruling alliance in Balochistan won eight out of 12 Senate seats from Balochistan. The BAP clinched six seats while its ally Awami National Party (ANP) won one seat. Another successful candidate had the support of the BAP.

The BAP also won one seat from KP.

The opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) secured four seats from Balochistan.

PDM clinches four seats; one each goes to ANP, independent candidate

Business tycoon Muhammad Abdul Qadir was the winner of the first seat whose result was announced. He was declared winner in the first count, getting 11 votes which were more than the required votes for the success of a candidate from Balochistan.

Abdul Qadir, who was earlier given PTI ticket, contested the election as independent candidate after withdrawal of the party ticket by PTI high command as party leaders and workers from Balochistan opposed his nomination. Mr Qadir managed to muster the support of the BAP and Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan declared him a candidate of the party.

Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, secretary general of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, also won a seat in the first count by securing 11 votes.

BAP candidates who were elected in the Senate election from Balochistan included Manzoor Ahmed Kakar, Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti and Prince Agha Omer Ahmedzai on general seats, Syed Saeed Ahmed Hashmi on technocrat seat, Samina Mumtaz Zehri on woman’s reserved seat and MPA Danesh Kumar on minority seat.

Nawabzada Umar Farooq Kasi of the ANP also won a seat.

The PDM candidates who won seats included Mohammad Qasim Ronjho of the BNP-M on general seat, Kamran Murtaza on technocrat seat and Nasima Ehsan Shah on woman’s reserved seat. She had joined the BNP-M just one day before the Senate polls as her husband Syed Ehsan Shah, who is head of the Pakistan National Party, had declared support to the BNP-M in the Senate elections.

Neved Ahmed Kalmati, a candidate of the BAP for technocrat seat, lost election with the difference of one vote. He could bag 20 votes while the founder of the BAP, Syed Saeed Ahmed Hashmi obtained 21 votes.

An important candidate of BNP-M, Sajid Tareen, lost the election.

Balochistan National Party-Mengal president Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal had claimed on Tuesday that the PDM would give a surprise to the ruling alliance of Balochistan.

Amid tight security, polling for the 12 vacant Senate seats was held in Balochistan Assembly, which was declared a polling station by the Election Commission of Pakistan. All 65 members of the provincial assembly cast their votes. Provincial Election Commissioner Abdul Razzaq supervised the election with other staff of the commission.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2021