LAHORE: In a close contest, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf managed to win two seats in the Senate by-election held in the Punjab Assembly on Thursday.
PTI’s Waleed Iqbal defeated PML-N’s Saud Majeed, former MNA and senator, on a general seat with a margin of 10 votes. Mr Iqbal polled 184 votes while Mr Majeed managed to secure 176.
Similarly, PTI’s Seemi Ezdi with 183 votes defeated PML-N’s former federal minister Saira Afzal Tarar who polled 175 votes. Ms Ezdi is the sister of former PTI secretary general Jahangir Tareen.
Seven votes for general seat and nine for women’s reserved seat were rejected.
The PTI had a claimed strength of 194 votes with the support of coalition partners and independents but Mr Iqbal and Ms Ezdi got 184 and 183 votes, respectively.
The PML-N had a claimed strength of 173 votes but Mr Majeed got 176 votes and Ms Tarar scored 175 votes. Mr Majeed claims that three out of seven rejected votes were polled for him as he was expecting 179 votes.
The vote was held on the seats which fell vacant owing to disqualification of two PML-N senators Haroon Akhtar Khan and Saadia Abbasi on the charge of having dual nationality.