Sadiq Sanjrani defeated Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani to win Senate chairmanship
In a major setback, the ruling party candidate Sadiq Sanjrani was re-elected to the chair of the upper house, defeating Yousaf Raza Gilani who was supported by the opposition coalition of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
This marks a significant victory for the government after PTI’s Abdul Hafeez Shaikh lost the senate election to Gillani.
Sanjrani won the election after winning 48 votes while Gilani received 42 valid votes. A total of 98 votes were cast out of which eight were rejected.
PTI candidate Mirza Mohammad Afridi won the post of Senate deputy chairman by defeating JUI-F and PDM’s joint candidate Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. The coalition’s candidate Afridi secured 54 votes against Haideri’s 44 votes.
Even though the government had the total support of 47 senators against oppositions 52, it was expected that the government’s candidates will prevail. There has been a lot of controversy in the senate elections this time around with accusations of horse-trading from both sides. Another controversy came to the fore when the opposition members alleged that hidden cameras were present in the polling booths. The matter is currently under investigation.