The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have decided to support each other in the Senate by-polls on March 14, following the suspension of arrest warrants for Hasan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz, sons of PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif. The six vacant seats in the general category include one in the federal capital, two in Sindh, and three in Balochistan. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced the poll to fill 48 vacant seats in the Senate on April 2.
In a meeting on Tuesday, a delegation led by JUI-F leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri met with former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and other PPP senators, including Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani in Islamabad. The meeting discussed the political situation in the country and the Senate by-polls.
Gillani announced that the two parties have decided to support each other in the upcoming poll. The PPP and the JUI-F will work together in parliament, with the JUI-F seeking the PPP’s support on three vacant seats in the Senate from Balochistan and the PPP consenting to it. The JUI-F will support Gillani, who is contesting the Senate by-poll on Sindh’s seat.
The PPP is currently focusing on the Senate by-poll and will look into other matters later. The elections will be held for 48 vacant seats, with an official schedule to be issued on March 14. Polling will be held at the upper house of parliament as well as at Sindh and Balochistan assemblies in Karachi and Quetta.