Asif Ali Zardari has received 151 votes from Sindh in the presidential election while PkMAP Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai only managed nine votes, according to unofficial and preliminary results.
Presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari has received 246 votes in the Punjab Assembly while his opponent PkMAP Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai managed to only get 100 votes, according to preliminary results.
Out of the 352 cast votes, six were rejected. The counting of votes took place under the Election Commission of Pakistan’s presiding officer Nisar Durrani.
The coalition government’s nominee Asif Ali Zardari has clean swept the Balochistan Assembly votes during the presidential election, according to unofficial results.
Forty-seven members from Balochistan cast their votes, with all of them voting for Zardari and none for PTI-backed Mahmood Khan Achakzai.
Fifteen members were absent from the assembly.
Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad to discuss matters related to parliament, Radio Pakistanreports.
During the meeting, the prime minister appreciated Sardar Ayaz Sadiq for running house business efficiently.The two leaders also exchanged views on legislative and parliamentary matters.
PPP’s presidential candidate Asif Ali Zardari has recounted the 18th Amendment passed during his tenure as president.
Speaking to a journalist at the Parliament as he arrived to cast his vote, he said, “We simply advised it, it was the Parliament with a two-thirds majority that made it happen.”
MQM-P lawmaker Farooq Sattar says a delay doesn’t matter as long as cabinet selections are the right ones.
In a video posted by We News, he says: “The people that will be given the ministries should be competent enough to live up to the hopes of the people.”
PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub has said that only the public has the “authority” to declare his party “anti-state”, adding that they chose to vote for the PTI.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad, he said: “We are patriotic Pakistanis. The [right to give the] certificate of [being] anti-state is neither in the hands of the National Assembly speaker nor in anyone else’s.
“The authority or ability to give this certificate is in the hands of the Pakistani public.
Pakistan’s public has sent us here (National Assembly),” he added.
The PTI-backed MNA also challenged his political rivals to win if elections were conducted again.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his party’s candidate and father Asif Zardari managed to receive 411 votes in the presidential elections while the SIC-backed candidate Mehmood Khan Achakzai — the home of PTI independents — only managed to get 181 votes.
In a post on X, the former foreign minister said Zardari received 255 votes from the National Assembly and Senate, 151 from the Sindh Assembly, 246 in Punjab, 17 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 47 in the Balochistan Assembly.
The coalition government’s nominee, Asif Ali Zardari, has received 255 votes in a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate for the presidential election, while SIC-backed Mahmood Khan Achakzai managed just 119 votes, according to unofficial results.
ISLAMABAD: The plan of former Senate chairman to get an extension through an amendment to rules seems to have gone awry as he has finally taken the oath as a Balochistan Assembly MPA.
Sources told Dawn that the plan had to be shelved due to stiff opposition and the fear of the motion being defeated.
Under Article 223 of the Constitution, Mr Sanjrani ceased to be a senator on Feb 15 following the issuance of his victory notification as Balochistan Assembly member. Though he was not chairing Senate sessions, he continued to use the chairman’s chamber, holding meetings with different personalities and claiming the title of the Senate Chairman in official press releases until recently.
The Election Commission had announced the schedule for election on six Senate seats that fell vacant following election of the occupants who had won National or provincial assembly seats, that will take place on March 14.
IT is the misfortune of Pakistan’s more than 240m citizens that their political leadership simply refuses to learn. The country again stands at a crossroads — but for once, the overwhelming majority seems to be in agreement on what the source of its political instability really is.
Even the parties which have been co-opted by the establishment today are uneasy, knowing well they may find themselves on the receiving end before long. One would expect that this realisation would compel popular politicians — those whose fortunes’ rise and fall are tied to the health of Pakistan’s democracy — to work together and find a path forward that guarantees their preservation.
Instead, what we see is the heads of ‘democratic’ parties quibbling over who ought to be more favoured by those who have for long sought to go beyond their mandate. Therein lies the tragedy of Pakistan’s dream of ‘civilian supremacy’ — its biggest champions are usually the first to betray it.
The recent general election has greatly complicated the situation. It would have been much easier for our political stakeholders had they heeded what this publication and many others had repeatedly urged them to do well before the polls: sit down, find common grounds, and talk.
PTI-backed lawmaker Omer Ayub Khan speaks on the floor of the National Assembly on Friday.
• Four MNAs, 24 MPAs sworn in amid PTI-SIC protest
• PHC order barring oaths only applies to KP lawmakers, attorney general tells National Assembly
• Lahore, Sindh high courts do not issue stay orders, notices sent to ECP, political parties
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/KARACHI: Lawmakers allotted reserved seats that were denied to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) took oath in the national and Punjab assemblies, even as PTI-SIC members objected, citing restraining orders by the courts.
However, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan told the National Assembly that the Peshawar High Court’s stay order only applied to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and nothing prevented members hailing from other provinces from taking their oaths.
