ISLAMABAD, 7 March 2006 — The ruling Pakistan Muslim League(Q) was heading for victory in the Senate elections held yesterday.
According to preliminary results announced by returning officers, the ruling party won half of the Senate seats.
In the North West Frontier Province where the PML (Q) has no majority in the provincial assembly, it got only three seats. Its candidates Amar Khan, Salim Saifullah Khan and Afifa Zia emerged victorious. MMA, that has the majority in the provincial assembly, won four seats.
Awami National Party and the PPP won one seat each.
From Balochistan, Rehana Yahya Baloch, Saeed Hashmi, Mir Muhabbat Khan Marri, Capt. (retd) Jan Jamali and Mir Israrullah Zehri of PML (Q) were declared winners.
Jamhoori Watan Party’s Agha Shahid Bugti, MMA’s Ismail Buledi, Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party’s Rahim Khan Mandokhail and an independent candidate, Dr. Malik, were also declared winners.
From Punjab S. M. Zafar, Haroon Akhtar, Nilofar Bakhtiar and Gulshan Saeed of PML were declared elected.
From Sindh, Justice (retd) Abdul Razzak Thahim and Syed Tahir of PML (Q) emerged victorious. MQM’s Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Abdul Khaliq Pirzada and Ahmad Ali, were declared elected. PPP’s Raza Rabbani, Safdar Abbasi, Dr. Javed Leghari and Ms. Ratna were also elected.
