By-elections for 11 vacant Senate seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are set to take place today. The Election commission issues code of conduct to ensure fair and smooth polling.

By-elections will be held today on 11 vacant Senate seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for which the Election Commission has issued an election code of conduct.

According to the said code of conduct, the use of mobile phones or any type of electronic device will be completely banned in polling stations, while taking pictures of ballot papers has also been strictly prohibited. The polling will be held in the Jirga Hall of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, where a total of 145 members of the assembly will exercise their right to vote.

The Senate seats to be elected include seven general, two technocrat and two reserved seats for women.

An important meeting was also held between the government and the opposition before the election, which was attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Opposition Leader Dr. Ibad. The meeting reviewed the preparations for the Senate elections.

25 members elected on reserved seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly took oath

Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur told the media after the meeting that buying and selling in the Senate elections is not right in any way, we have agreed to give six seats to the government and five to the opposition as promised.

Meanwhile, four of the five disgruntled candidates of the PTI have announced their withdrawal from the Senate elections. Those who withdrew include Waqas Orakzai, Irshad Hussain, Irfan Saleem and Ayesha Bano.

Irshad Hussain wrote a formal letter to the Election Commission requesting the withdrawal of his nomination papers and said that this decision was taken in accordance with the decision of the founder and party leadership.

According to the Chief Minister’s spokesperson, Khurram Zeeshan is the only disgruntled candidate who has not announced his withdrawal yet.

Orakzai, while announcing his withdrawal after meeting the Chief Minister, said that withdrawing his papers does not mean that he has deviated from his ideology. He said that Barrister Gohar and Salman Akram Raja assured him that the names of candidates for the Senate elections were finalized by the founder PTI.

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Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur, while praising the decision of the angry leaders, said, “Alhamdulillah, Waqas Orakzai respected the decision of the founder, and I am proud that he preferred the ideology of the party over personal interest. This spirit will form the basis of a corruption-free new Pakistan.”