Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday finalised and approved the names of seven candidates for the upcoming Senate elections to be held on March 3. After a meeting of party's parliamentary board chaired by PTI Chairman Imran Khan, the party decided to give tickets to Azam Swati, Fida Hussain, Faisal Javed Khan, Mehrtaj Roghani, Khayal Zaman and Ayub Afridi.
The party has also made an alliance with PML-Q to clinch a seat from Punjab, for which Chaudhry Sarwar of PTI and Kamil Ali Agha of PML-Q, who is retiring in March, have been given tickets by their respective parties. With six new senators to get elected to the Upper House of Parliament from KPK, the PTI is set to emerge as the third largest political party in terms of its strength in Senate.
The election on half of the 104-seat House is scheduled to be held on March 3, as 52 senators will retire next month upon completion of their six-year term in the Senate. Currently, the PTI stands at the fourth position, given its numerical strength of seven senators in the House and only one of its senators, Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, is scheduled to retire in March.
Swati was elected as senator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the demise of Awami National Party Senator Azam Khan Hoti in April 2015. After completing his three years, Swati once again managed to get Senate ticket. The PTI expects to win six Senate seats out of 52 during the March 3 election, all of them coming from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the party is in power - taking the strength to 13.
Under the Senate election rules, provinces elect their representatives in the Upper House on the basis of their strength in the respective provincial assembly, while members of the National Assembly vote to elect senators from Islamabad. On March 3, the KP Assembly will elect a total of 11 senators. According to the formula, 123-seat KP assembly will be required a total of 17 MPAs vote to elect one senator.
The parties' strength chart shows that the PTI has 61 MPAs, Qaumi Watan Party (10), PPP (6), PML-N (16), JI (7), ANP (5) and two independents.