ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q), Pakistan Muslim LeagueFunctional (PML-F) and Balochistan National Party Awami (BNP-A) willcompletely loss their representation in Senate while Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) is likely to emerge a single largest party in the Upper Houseafter Senate elections in March.
As per the present strength in the national and the provincial assemblies,the ruling party is likely to clinch at least 18 seats in the upcomingSenate elections.
Currently, PML-N has majority seats in the Upper House of the Parliamentwith 27 seats and nine of its senators are set to retire on March 11 aftercompleting their six-year term.
It is likely that the PML-N will clean sweep the Senate election in thePunjab Assembly and win all 12 seats, where the party has a total of 309members.
Similarly, the ruling party can easily win two seats from the federalcapital as PML-N has majority in the National Assembly.
However, at least 15 new lawmakers of the PML-N would make their way in thehouse, raising the total number of its senators to 33.
Pakistan People Party (PPP) will be major loser as its 18 senators out of26 are set to retire on March 11.
The Awami National Party (ANP) will also lose five senators out of totalsix after the elections.
As many as 52 senators, including 12 each from Punjab and Sindh, 11 eachfrom Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, two from the federal capital andfour from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) will retire onMarch 11, 2018.
Some 18 senators of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP),nine of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), five each of Awami NationalParty (ANP) and independents, four each of Pakistan Muslim Leagie-Q(PML-Q), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), three of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl(JUI-F), two of Balochistan National Party-A (BNP-A), and one each ofPakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional(PML-F) will complete their terms next year.
Prominent among those, who will retire, include Senate Chairman MianRaza Rabbani, Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Leader of the OppositionBarrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Farhatullah Babar, AzamSwati, Kamran Micheal,Shahi Syed, Kamil Ali Agha, Talha Mehmood, Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, NasreenJalil and Ilyas Bilour.
Senators from Punjab, who will retire next year, include M. Hamza (PML-N),Kamil Ali Agha (PML-Q), Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari (Independent),Muhammad Zafar ullah Khan Dhandla (PML-N), Saud Majeed (PML-N) in vice ofMalik Rafique Rajwana (PML-N), Sardar Zulfikar Khosa (PML-N), Asif SaeedKirmani (PML-N) in vice of Dr Babar Awan, Aitzaz Ahsan (PPPP), MohammadIshaq Dar (PML-N), Khalida Parveen (PPPP), Nuzhat Sadiq (PML-N) and KamranMicheal (PML-N) . The 12 senators, who will complete their six-yeartenure from Sindh, are Murtaza Wahab (PPPP) in vice of SaeedGhani (PPPP), Col ® Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (MQM), Karim Ahmed Khawaja(PPPP), Maulana Tanveerul Haq Thanvi (MQM) in vice of Mustafa Kamal, RazaRabbani (PPPP), Mukhtar Ahmed Dhamrah (PPPP), Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah(PML-F),Muhammad Farogh Naseem (MQM), Taj Haider (PPPP) in vice of Dr AbdulHafeez Sheikh, Nasreen Jalil (MQM), Saher Kamran (PPPP) and Hari Ram (PPPP).
Similarly, 11 senators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who will retire nextyear, include Ahmed Hassan (PPPP), Baz Muhammad Khan (ANP), Haji SaifullahKhan Bangash (PPPP), Azam Khan Swati (PTI), Muhammad Talha Mehmood (JUI-F),Nisar Muhammad (PML-N), Shahi Syed (ANP), Farhatullah Babar (PPPP), IlyasAhmed Bilour (ANP), Rubina Khalid (PPPP) and Zahida Khan (ANP).
The senators from Balochistan, who will complete their term, includeMuhammad Daud Khan Achakzai (ANP), Maulana Hafiz Hamdullah (JUI-F), MirIsrar ullah Khan Zehri (BNP-A), Muhammad Yousaf (PPPP), Nawabzada SaifullahMagsi (PPPP), Saeedul Hassan Mandokhel (PML), Sardar Fateh MuhammadMuhammad Hasni (PPPP), Mufti Abdul Sattar (JUI-F), Rozi Khan Kakar (PPPP),Naseema Ehsan (BNP-A) and Rubina Irfan (PML).
Likewise, four senators from FATA, including Hidayatullah, Hilalur Rehman,Malik Najmul Hassan and Muhammad Saleh Shah (independents) and two fromfederal capital Osman Saifullah (PPPP) and Mushahid Hussain Sayed (PML-Q)will retire on March 11 2018.The elections for 52 of the total 104 seats of Senate are scheduled to beheld on March 3 through secret balloting.Each provincial assembly elects its representatives on the basis of theparty strength in that house under the procedure set for the Senateelections.
Half of the senators of 104-member house retire after every three years oncompletion of their six-year term.The Senate comprises 23 members from each of the four provinces, eight fromFederally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and four from the IslamabadCapital Territory.Each province has 14 general and nine reserved seats — four for women andtechnocrats each, while one seat is reserved for a non-Muslim communitymember.