Zeeshan Khanzada, a candidate of the ruling PTI, defeated the candidate fielded by opposition parties in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to win election to a vacant Senate seat on Tuesday.
The seat was vacated by PPP’s Khanzada Khan a few days ago after his son Zeeshan joined the PTI.
With a total of 139 votes polled in the house of 145 lawmakers, the PTI candidate needed a minimum of 70 votes to win the by-election on the Senate general seat.
Zeeshan, however, secured a total of 104 votes – 94 from PTI lawmakers, one from the PML-Q, one from an independent lawmaker, four from the Balochistan Awami Party and four from opposition parties’ MPAs who apparently voted against their joint candidate. In contrast, the joint opposition candidate, Farzand Ali Khan of the PPP, managed to get 31 votes.
Out of the total votes polled, four were rejected. The Jamaat-i-Islami had boycotted the by-poll, with its MPA Humaira Khatoon saying that they did not participate in the election because of “horse-trading”. The polling in the KP Assembly started at 9am and continued till 4pm without any break. Speaking to reporters after being elected to the Senate, Zeeshan said he has set out on his political journey with “clean intentions”. He vowed to support every decision taken by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Meanwhile, PPP’s Nighat Orakzai while commenting on Zeeshan’s election congratulated Prime Minister Imran on “gaining another lota (turncoat)”. She regretted that the JI had decided to boycott the election.
