Imran Khan secures 18 seats in Pakistan Senate, loses Islamabad to opposition

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has secured 18 seats in the Senate elections but the victory was bittersweet as Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Yousuf Raza Gillani defeated PTI’s Hafeez Shaikh from the Islamabad general seat by securing 169 votes.
According to a report by Geo News, the returning officer, who announced the results after counting ended in the National Assembly, said that six of the total 340 ballots cast in the National Assembly were rejected.
After losing the hotly contested Islamabad Senate general seat, Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced his decision to seek a vote of confidence from the National Assembly.
“Those standing with Imran Khan will be seen on one side and those who are not, and think they like the ideology of the PPP and PML-N have every right to join their ranks,” said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
After the announcement of his victory in the Senate election, Yousaf Raza Gillani said at a press conference, “This is the victory of democracy…The Islamabad seat was the most important seat in the Senate elections and everyone was eyeing it. [Through my win], the PDM has been victorious.”
“Democracy is the best revenge. Jeya Bhutto!” said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in a tweet following Gillani’s win.
While Gillani secured 169 votes, Shaikh got 164.
“My sincerest felicitations to Mr Yousuf Raza Gilani on his glorious victory in the Senate elections,” tweeted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) founder Nawaz Sharif.

PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz also tweeted her congratulations to Gilani and the PDM. She congratulated the Members of National Assembly (MNAs) of the PML-N for accepting PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s stance and “refusing to bow down and sell out”.
“Well done PML-N! The future is yours,” said Maryam.
In another post, she claimed that “the fake mandate has been snatched back by the people’s representatives”.
The polling for 37 seats of Pakistan’s Senate came to a close at 5 pm for a total of 78 candidates contesting from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Islamabad.
The polls were held after a long-drawn open ballot controversy that kept the ruling party and opposition in a war of words and a legal battle before the Supreme Court on Monday announced that the elections for the Upper House of the Parliament will be held through secret ballot, according to Article 226 of the Pakistan Constitution.