LAHORE: Adviser to Prime Minister and President PMLN Punjab Rana Sanaullah Khan was on Tuesday elected as senator in a by-election.
The by-poll was held on the seat that fell vacant after the disqualification of PTI leader Ijaz Chaudhry. Sana won the seat by securing 250 votes. Polling started at 9am and ended at 4pm, during which 251 votes were cast while one vote was rejected. The polling process took place in the new building of the Punjab Assembly. Sana was a candidate from the PMLN and its coalition parties while the opposition had nominated Ijaz Chaudhry’s wife Salma Ijaz.
After his victory, PMLN leaders said the PMLN has 21 seats in the Senate, the PPP 26 and the PTI 21. The JUIF has 7 seats, Balochistan Awami Party 4, ANP 3, Q-League, National Party and the MWM one each and there are six independent members in the Senate. The election schedule for one general Senate seat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is yet to be announced.
Meanwhile, talking to the media outside the Punjab Assembly, Sana said he would accept whatever responsibility Shehbaz Sharif gave him. “I will fulfill my duty with honesty, I have been fulfilling my responsibility with honesty before,” he said, adding that the PTI chose to boycott the political and democratic process and escaped the election. The PTI submitted its papers, completed the verification process, then went to the high court to take a bet and when it failed in the court, it chose the path of boycott. The PTI’s boycott was a lack of confidence in its members. The PTI is afraid of its members and claimed that 10 to 12 PTI members contacted him and wanted to cast their votes for him. He claimed that he had forbidden them not to vote for him and instead vote for their candidate.
Over a question, he said he was already part of the prime minister’s team and the cabinet and every minister of the cabinet was fulfilling his/her responsibility well. Replying to another question, he said he was not going to replace anyone as all the ministers were working properly in their respective places.
