| Election Name: | 2018 Pakistani Senate election |
| Country: | Pakistan |
| Type: | legislative |
| Ongoing: | No |
| Previous Election: | 2015 Pakistani Senate election |
| Previous Year: | 2015 |
| Next Election: | 2021 Pakistani Senate election |
| Next Year: | 2021 |
| Seats For Election: | 52 of the 104 seats in the Senate of Pakistan |
| Majority Seats: | 53 |
| Election Date: | 3 March 2018 |
| Leader1: | Raja Zafar-ul-Haq |
| Party1: | Pakistan Muslim League (N) |
| Leaders Seat1: | Technocrat Punjab |
| Last Election1: | 26 |
| Seats1: | 33 |
| Seat Change1: | 7 |
| Leader2: | Sherry Rehman |
| Leaders Seat2: | General Sindh |
| Party2: | Pakistan Peoples Party |
| Last Election2: | 27 |
| Seats2: | 20 |
| Seat Change2: | 7 |
| Leader3: | Azam Swati |
| Leaders Seat3: | Technocrat KP |
| Party3: | Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf |
| Last Election3: | 9 |
| Seats3: | 15 |
| Seat Change3: | 6 |
| Chairman | |
| Before Election: | Raza Rabbani |
| Before Party: | Pakistan Peoples Party |
| After Election: | Sadiq Sanjrani |
| After Party: | Balochistan Awami Party |
| Posttitle: | Elected Chairman |
The triennial Senate Elections of Pakistan were held on 3 March 2018 to replace 52 retiring senators - half of the Senate's strength - with the winning candidates serving six-year terms.[1] Overall, Pakistan Muslim League (N) came out as the largest party, followed by the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.[2] The results of these elections were steeped in controversy due to rampant allegations of horse trading and vote-buying, which lead to the Prime Minister and opposition leader Imran Khan calling for reforms.[3] [4] [5] Prior to this election, PML (N) candidates were declared as independents by the Election Commission of Pakistan owing to a Supreme Court judgment.[6]
Elections for the chairmanship and deputy chairmanship of the senate were held on 12 March 2018. Both posts were won by joint opposition's candidates with Sadiq Sanjrani and Saleem Mandviwalla being elected chairman and deputy chairman, respectively.
The Senate of Pakistan is the upper house of the Parliament of Pakistan. It consists of 104 senators with each senator serving a 6-year term. The elections are conducted triennially for half the seats in the senate. This staggered nature of the terms means that at any given time senators from two different elections are serving in the Senate.[7]
The 2018 elections were conducted on 3 March 2018 to replace the senators elected during the 2012 elections. The electoral process is based on an indirect single transferable vote. This is in contrast to the methodology of direct first-past-the-post voting used in all other parliamentary elections in the country. Thus, effectively, the senators in Pakistan are voted for by serving members of the country's National and Provincial Assemblies and not the public.[7] This reduction in electorate, the transferable nature of the vote, and secrecy of the ballot have resulted in the senate elections in the country being almost always marred by allegations of vote trading.[8] [9] [10] [11]
In terms of seats, there is a fixed representation of each of the country's administrative units in the senate, apart from the disputed territories of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. There are 23 seats from each province, 8 from Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and 4 from the capital region of Islamabad. In a given election, half of these seats are contested. Due to the odd nature of the number of seats from the provinces, each election cycle sees two provinces elect all 12 representatives, while the remaining two elect 11.[7]
This year's elections took place in an environment of uncertainty as one of the electing houses, the Balochistan Assembly, saw an in-house change,[12] the lower house's speaker, Ayaz Sadiq, voiced concerns that 'hidden elements' might not let the current government complete its term,[13] [14] and the candidacy of PML-N candidates was stripped mere days before the election. Further still, in the lead up to the elections, the ruling PML-N was of the opinion that the provincial assemblies in which it is not in power, namely, Balochistan, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, might be prematurely dissolved to postpone the senate elections until after the general elections.[15] [16]
On 28 July 2017, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from holding public office. Following this, the Elections Act 2017 was passed, which allowed Sharif to serve as party head despite being disqualified.[17] However, in a later judgement passed by the Supreme Court on 21 February 2018, Sharif was disqualified from holding office as party president. In this judgement, all decisions taken by Sharif during his tenure as party president were declared null and void, including Senate tickets which he had signed himself.[18] To prevent delay in Senate elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan declared all PML(N) candidates as Independents.[6]
Voting is conducted on the basis of single transferable vote where a voter prioritizes their vote among a list of candidates. First priority votes are given the highest weightage and carry 100 points. The Election Commission of Pakistan establishes the criterion for the minimum number of points required to attain a senate seat. During the first count, when a candidate breaches that criterion, they are declared a winner for the seat. Any surplus points they have are divided among other preferences in successive iteration(s). Similarly, a candidate who falls well short of this criterion during the first count has their points transferred among other preferences in subsequent count(s). This whole exercise is repeated iteratively until all vacant seats are filled.[19]
It is pertinent to mention that the points system is only used for senators to be elected from general, women, and technocrat seats in provincial assemblies. For senators who are elected from the National Assembly or are running for a minority/non-Muslim seat in the provinces, only a vote count is used.
In a typical election, a total of 52 seats are contested. Of which 33 are general seats (7 from each province, 4 from FATA, and 1 from Islamabad), 9 are technocrat seats (2 from each province, and 1 from Islamabad), 8 are women seats (2 apiece from each province), and 2 are minority seats (1 each from 2 provinces).
The following table outlines the voting requirements in the current senate elections. The Minimum Votes Required column only considers first priority votes:
| Punjab | Provincial Assembly | 4563 | 46 | |
| Sindh | Provincial Assembly | 1838[20] | 19 | |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Provincial Assembly | 1476[21] | 15 | |
| Balochistan | Provincial Assembly | 788[22] | 8 | |
| FATA | National Assembly† | N/A | 7[23] | |
| ICT | National Assembly | N/A | 146[24] |
| Punjab | Provincial Assembly | 12067 | 121 | |
| Sindh | Provincial Assembly | 5001 | 51 | |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Provincial Assembly | 4001 | 41 | |
| Balochistan | Provincial Assembly | 2134 | 22 | |
| ICT | National Assembly | N/A | 144 |
| Punjab | Provincial Assembly | 12067 | 121 | |
| Sindh | Provincial Assembly | 5001 | 51 | |
| Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Provincial Assembly | 4001 | 41 | |
| Balochistan | Provincial Assembly | 2134 | 22 |
| Punjab | Provincial Assembly | 179 | |
| Sindh | Provincial Assembly | 75 |
A total of 131 candidates were in the run for the 52 seats. 33 from Sindh, 26 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 24 from FATA, 23 from Balochistan, 20 from Punjab, and 5 from Islamabad.[25]
| General | Asif Kirmani | PML-N |
| Mehmoodul Hassan | PML-N | |
| Rana Maqbool | PML-N | |
| Zubair Gul | PML-N | |
| Shaheen Butt | PML-N | |
| Musadik Malik | PML-N | |
| Haroon Khan | PML-N | |
| Kamil Ali Agha | PML-Q | |
| Shahzad Khan | PPP | |
| Chaudhry Sarwar | PTI | |
| Technocrat | Naseer Bhutta | PML-N |
| Hafiz Abdul Kareem | PML-N | |
| Ishaq Dar | PML-N | |
| Nawazish Pirzada | PPP | |
| Asif Javaid | PTI | |
| Women | Saadia Abbasi | PML-N |
| Nuzhat Sadiq | PML-N | |
| Andaleeb Abbas | PTI | |
| Minority | Kamran Michael | PML-N |
| Victor Azariah | PTI |
| General | Ahmed Chinoy | MQM |
| Amin-ul-Haq | MQM | |
| Amir Chishti | MQM | |
| Farhan Chishti | MQM | |
| Farogh Naseem | MQM | |
| Kamran Tessori | MQM | |
| Muzaffar Hussain | PML-F | |
| Sarfaraz Jatoi | PML-N | |
| Imamuddin Shouqeen | PPP | |
| Ayaz Mehar | PPP | |
| Ali Shah Jamot | PPP | |
| Murtaza Wahab | PPP | |
| Mustafa Khokhar | PPP | |
| Moula Bux Chandio | PPP | |
| Raza Rabbani | PPP | |
| Anis Ahmed Khan | PSP | |
| Sagheer Ahmed | PSP | |
| Mubashir Imam | PSP | |
| Technocrat | Hasan Feroz | MQM |
| Abdul Kadir Khanzada | MQM | |
| Ali Raza Abidi | MQM | |
| Sikandar Mandhro | PPP | |
| Rukhsana Zuberi | PPP | |
| Najeeb Haroon | PTI | |
| Women | Nikhat Shakeel | MQM |
| Kishwer Zehra | MQM | |
| Nasreen Jalil | MQM | |
| Mangla Sharma | MQM | |
| Qurutulain Marri | PPP | |
| Keshoo Bai | PPP | |
| Minority | Sanjay Perwani | MQM |
| Anwar Lal Deen | PPP | |
| Mohan Manjiani | PSP |
| General | Masood Abbas | ANP |
| Mushtaq Ahmed | JI | |
| Gul Naseeb Khan | JUI-F | |
| Talha Mahmood | JUI-F | |
| Pir Sabir Shah | PML-N | |
| Ali Afzal Jadoon | PML-N | |
| Bahramand Tangi | PPP | |
| Faisal Sakhi Butt | PPP | |
| Khial Zaman | PTI | |
| Abdul Latif Yousafzai | PTI | |
| Fida Muhammad | PTI | |
| Faisal Javed | PTI | |
| Muhammad Ayub | PTI | |
| Muhammad Ghufran | QWP | |
| Technocrat | Yaqoob Sheikh | JUI-F |
| Sami-ul-Haq | Independent | |
| Dilawar Khan | PML-N | |
| Nisar Khan | PML-N | |
| Azam Swati | PTI | |
| Women | Shagufta Malik | ANP |
| Naeema Kishwar | JUI-F | |
| Sobia Shahid | PML-N | |
| Raeesa Daud | PML-N | |
| Rubina Khalid | PPP | |
| Mehr Taj Roghani | PTI | |
| Naureen Farooq | PTI | |
| Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli | QWP |
| General | Nizam-ud-Din Kakkar | ANP |
| Hamayun Kurd | BNP-M | |
| Ahmed Khan | Independent | |
| Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar | Independent | |
| Hussain Islam | Independent | |
| Allauddin | Independent | |
| Fateh Baloch | Independent | |
| Kauda Babar | Independent | |
| Sadiq Sanjrani | Independent | |
| Abdul Qadir | Independent | |
| Muhammad Akram | NP | |
| Faiz Muhammad | JUI-F | |
| Shafeeq Tareen | PKMAP | |
| Amir Afzal Khan | PML-N | |
| Yousaf Kakar | PML-N | |
| Naseebullah Bazai | Independent | |
| Technocrat | Kamran Murtaza | JUI-F |
| Tahir Bizenjo | NP | |
| Abdul Manaf Tareen | PML-N | |
| Women | Sana Jamali | Independent |
| Shama Magsi | Independent | |
| Azra Syed | JUI-F | |
| Tahir Khursheed | NP | |
| Abida Azeem | PKMAP | |
| Samina Zehri | PML-N |
| General | Aqal Shah | Independent |
| Said Jamal | Independent | |
| Haji Khan | Independent | |
| Sajid Turi | Independent | |
| Ghazi Ghazan Jamal | Independent | |
| Shah Khalid | Independent | |
| Shahid Hussain | Independent | |
| Shoaib Hassan | Independent | |
| Shammim Afridi | Independent | |
| Saleh Sarwar | Independent | |
| Zia-ur-Rehman | Independent | |
| Tahir Iqbal | Independent | |
| Abdul Raziq | Independent | |
| Faiz-ur-Rehman | Independent | |
| Mirza Afridi | Independent | |
| Afzal Din Khan | Independent | |
| Najamul Hassan | Independent | |
| Nizam Uddin Khan | Independent | |
| Hidayat Ullah | Independent | |
| Hillal-ur-Rehman | Independent | |
| Jangriz Khan | PPP | |
| Akhunzada Chattan | PPP | |
| Shahban Ali | PPP | |
| Farhad Shabab | PPP |
| General | Asad Junejo | PML-N |
| Atif Fazal | PML-N | |
| Imran Ashraf | PPP | |
| Kanwa Shauzab | PTI | |
| Technocrat | Mushahid Hussain | PML-N |
| Shakil Abbasi | PPP |
Overall, PML (N) backed Independents won the most seats, securing 15 of the 52 seats up for election. 11 of these seats were from Punjab, 2 of them from Islamabad and 2 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.[32] The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) closely trailed behind, securing 12 of the 52 seats. Of these, 10 were won in Sindh and 2 were won in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secured 6 seats of which 5 came from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one from Punjab.
The strong performance of the PPP raised many eyebrows and led to allegations of 'horse trading' by the party. Noting that MQM, despite having 52 MPAs in the Sindh Assembly, only managed to secure one senator, whilst the PPP managed to secure two senators - including one on the women's seat - from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with only 7 MPAs.[33] [34] [35]
Another surprise win was by Chaudhry Sarwar of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from a general seat in Punjab who gained 44 first priority and 2 second priority votes - the most in the assembly this election.[36] This was a surprise because the result came about despite the PTI-PML (Q) alliance only having 38 votes.[37] This indicated that Sarwar had also been voted for by members of Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Peoples Party.[38]
Finally, on a Women seat from Sindh, Krishna Kolhi of the PPP became the first Dalit to be elected to the Senate of Pakistan.[39] [40] [41]
NOTE: All PML-N candidates officially ran as Independents
| Seat Type | Winners | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | Asif Kirmani(PML-N) | Shaheen Butt(PML-N) | Haroon Khan(PML-N) | Musadik Malik(PML-N) | Rana Maqbool(PML-N) | Mehmoodul Hassan(PML-N) | Chaudhry Sarwar(PTI) | |
| Technocrat | Ishaq Dar (PML-N) | Hafiz Abdul Karim (PML-N) | ||||||
| Women | Saadia Abbasi (PML-N) | Nuzhat Sadiq (PML-N) | ||||||
| Minority | Kamran Micheal (PML-N) | |||||||
| Seat Type | Winners | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | Raza Rabbani(PPP) | Bux Chandio(PPP) | Ali Shah Jamote(PPP) | Mustafa Nawaz Khokar(PPP) | Sikandar Menghro(PPP) | Farogh Naseem(MQM) | Muzaffar Hussain(PML-F) | |
| Technocrat | Rukhsana Zubairi (PPP) | Sikander Mandhro (PPP) | ||||||
| Women | Qurultain Marri (PPP) | Krishna Kolhi (PPP) | ||||||
| Minority | Anwar Laal Dean (PPP) | |||||||
| Seat Type | Winners | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | Faisal Javed(PTI) | Muhammad Ayub(PTI) | Fida Muhammad(PTI) | Pir Sabir Shah(PML-N) | Bahramand Tangi(PPP) | Talha Mahmood (JUI-F) | Mushtaq Ahmed (JI) | |
| Technocrat | Azam Swati (PTI) | Dilawar Khan (PML-N) | ||||||
| Women | Meher Tag Roghani (PTI) | Robina Khalid (PPP) | ||||||
| Seat Type | Winners | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar (Independent) | Ahmed Khan(Independent) | Khuda Babar (Independent) | Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani(Independent) | Muhammad Shafiq Tareen(PkMAP) | Faiz Muhammad(JUI-F) | Muhammad Akram(NP) | |
| Technocrat | Naseebullah Bazai (Independent) | Tahir Bizenjo (NP) | ||||||
| Women | Sana Jamali (Independent) | Abida Umar (PkMAP) | ||||||
NOTE: FATA only has general seats, while Islamabad has 1 general and 1 technocrat seat that were up in this election.
| Seat Type | Winners | |
|---|---|---|
| General | Asad Junejo(PML-N) | |
| Technocrat | Mushahid Hussain(PML-N) |
After the winning candidates have been notified by the Election Commission, there is a one-week delay until they take oath. During that time, retiring senators make their farewell speeches[42] [43] [44] and any objections on the successful candidates is handled.[45] After this time has lapsed, the reconstituted senate elects their Chairman and Deputy Chairman by a simple majority via a secret ballot.[46]
Two candidates apiece, from the opposition and treasury benches, contested the elections on 12 March 2018.[47] Joint opposition's candidates, Sadiq Sanjrani and Saleem Mandviwalla, won the elections for their respective seats.[48] [49]
| Sadiq Sanjrani | Chairmanship | Independent | 57 | Opposition BenchesIndependents |
| Saleem Mandviwalla | Deputy Chairmanship | PPP | 54 | |
| Raja Zafar-ul-Haq | Chairmanship | PML-N | 46 | Treasury Benches |
| Usman Khan Kakar | Deputy Chairmanship | PkMAP | 44 |