Voting gets underway for by-election on vacant Senate seat

The polling for by-election for a general seat of the Senate is underway, where 145 lawmakers of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly are to exercise their right to vote to elect a member for the upper house.

The polling for the by-election began at 9am and will continue till 4pm.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin is considered as the strongest contender for the slot compared to other candidates as the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) enjoys majoring in the house.

PTI has 96 members in the 145-strong provincial assembly and therefore, defeating Shaukat Tarin in the by-election is an uphill task for the opposition parties.

Tarin was appointed the federal finance minister on Apr 16, 2021, and served against that post for six months. As he was not a parliamentarian, he couldn’t hold that office beyond six months.

He had to relinquish that post prompting the prime minister to appoint him his adviser on finance and revenue.