Senate elections were held in Pakistan on 5 March 2015 to elect the replacements for 52 retiring senators. Those retiring include chairman Nayyar Hussain Bukhari and deputy chairman Sabir Ali Baloch of the upper house. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the majority party in Senate, would lose 21 members, followed by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz would lose 9 and Awami National Party would lose 6 members.^[1][2]

Quick Facts 52 of the 104 seats in the Senate of Pakistan 53 seats needed for a majority, Majority party ...

2015 Pakistani Senate election

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52 of the 104 seats in the Senate of Pakistan 53 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Party PPP PML(N) Last election 41 14 Seats won 27 26 Seat change 14 12   Third party Fourth party   Party MQM PTI Last election 7 0 Seats won 8 6 Seat change 1 6
Chairman before election Nayyar Hussain Bukhari PPP Elected Chairman Raza Rabbani PPP

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According to the schedule issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), nomination papers for the election were submitted on 12 and 13 February, while scrutiny of the papers was held on 16 and 17 February. The list of contesting candidates was issued on 25 February. Polling for the 52 seats will be held on 5 March. For 11 seats, each of the four provinces' polling will be held in the provincial capitals, while polling for seats from the federal capital and FATA will be held in the National Assembly. According to the ECP notification, in each province elections will be held for seven general seats, two seats for technocrats and Ulema and two reserved seats for women.^[3][4]

Elections are held indirectly; to win one seat in Senate, the candidates would require 52 votes from the Punjab Assembly, 24 from the Sindh Assembly, 18 from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 9 from the Balochistan Assembly.^[5][6]

According to The Express Tribune, four contestants already elected unopposed in Sindh – two each from the PPP and MQM – voting was held for the remaining 48 seats with members of the provincial assemblies electing senators on their respective provincial quotas – seven for Sindh, 11 for Punjab, 12 each for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan for different categories of seats. Members of the National Assembly will be voting for two seats for Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) while MNAs from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) will elect four senators from the tribal belt.

According to the final list of contestants notified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 84 candidates will contest for 33 general seats from the provinces, Fata and the ICT while 22 candidates will contest for eight seats reserved for women in the provinces and ICT. Eighteen candidates will contest for eight seats reserved for technocrats, including Ulema, while eight others will run for two seats – one each from K-P and Balochistan – reserved for minorities.^[7]

According to unofficial results released by Dunya News, Pakistan Muslim League (N) won 16 seats, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) got seven, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won five, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) collected four, the National Party and Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party got three seats each, Balochistan National Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) got one seat each while an independent candidate also became senator from Balochistan. The PML-N and its allied parties in the province including NP and PkMAP won nine seats.^[13]