Pakistan senators will elect the chairman and deputy chairman of the upper house of Parliament today.

Forty-eight new members, who were elected by the country’s MNAs and MPAs on March 3, took oath after the session started at 10am.

The PPP Senators staged a protest. They claimed that spy cameras have been installed over polling booths.

Myself and Dr Musadik found spy cameras right over the polling booth!!!! pic.twitter.com/aqRGFRYFbq

— Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar (@Mustafa_PPP) March 12, 2021

“There is no provision in the rules for putting cameras at the polling stations,” Senator Raza Rabbani remarked. It is against the Constitution, it is against Article 226, it is against the reference that you moved in the Supreme Court which held that balloting will be closed, he added.

Syed Muzafar Hussain Shah, who is presiding over the special session, assured the opposition senators that “polling booths will be constructed afresh to the satisfaction of the opposition and government”. He asked the senators to take their seats, adding that Rule 9 says that no other business shall be transacted on the day of special sittings. Oath will be administered to new members and the election for Chairman and deputy chairman will be held.

After the oath-taking, the session will be adjourned during which the nomination papers for the chairman and deputy chairman will be submitted. The voting will begin at 3pm.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has nominated Sadiq Sanjrani, who won the election in 2018, for chairman, and Mirza Mohammad Afridi, a billionaire from KP, for deputy chairman.

The opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement, has fielded former PM Yousaf Raza Gillani for chairman and JUI-F’s Maulana Ghafoor Haideri for deputy chairman.

Gillani was elected senator on a general seat in Islamabad after defeating PTI-backed Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

A tough and close competition is expected as the winner needs a simple majority of 51. The house comprises 100 members. Both PTI and PDM have claimed that they have the support of 51 senators.

New senators

Here are all the candidates that were elected senators during the elections on March 3.

Islamabad

General seat
PPP’s Yousaf Raza Gillani

Women seat
PTI’s Fawzia Arshad

Punjab

General seats
Kamil Ali Agha (PML)
Afnanullah Khan (PML-N)
Sajid Mir (PML-N)
Irfanul Haque Siddiqui (PML-N)
Saifullah Sarwar Khan (PTI)
Aon Abbas (PTI)
Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry (PTI)

Technocrat seats
Syed Ali Zafar (PTI)
Azam Nazeer Tarar (PML-N)

Women seats
Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur (PTI)
Saadia Abbasi (PML-N)

Sindh

General seats
Sherry Rehman (PPP)
Saleem Mandviwalla (PPP)
Taj Haider (PPP)
Shahadat Awan (PPP)
Jam Hussain Dahar (PPP)
Faisal Vawda (PTI)
Faisal Subzwari (MQM-P)

Technocrat seats
Farooq H Naek (PPP)
Saifullah Abro (PTI)

Women seats
Palwasha Mohammad Zai Khan (PPP)
Khalida Ateeb (MQM-P)

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

General seats
Mohsin Aziz (PTI)
Liaqat Khan Tarakai (PTI)
Shibli Faraz (PTI)
Faisal Saleem Rehman (PTI)
Zeeshan Khan Zada (PTI)
Hidayatullah Khan (ANP)
Attaur Rehman (JUIP)

Technocrat seats
Dost Muhammad Khan (PTI)
Muhammad Humayun Mohmand (PTI)

Women seats
Sania Nishtar (PTI)
Falak Naz (PTI)

Non-muslim seat
Gurdeep Singh (PTI)

Balochistan

General seats
Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti (BAP)
Manzoor Ahmed (BAP)
Prince Ahmed Umer Ahmedzai (BAP)
Muhammad Abdul Qadir (IND)
Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri (JUIP)
Umer Farooq (ANP)

Technocrat seats
Kamran Murtaza (JUIP)
Saeed Ahmed Hashmi (BAP)

Women seats
Samina Mumtaz (BAP)
Naseema Ehsan (IND)

Non-muslim seat
Danesh Kumar (BAP)

Rigging accusations

The government and opposition parties have accused each other of horse-trading and buying votes of senators during the elections.

On Thursday, some PML-N members claimed that the agencies have been attempting to rig the election.

Related: Bilawal vows to have Gillani elected as Senate chairman

ISI officials are making phone calls to PML-N senators in an attempt to make them switch their loyalties in the March 12 election for Senate chairman, PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Thursday. Maryam Nawaz, the party’s vice-president, also claimed that party members have been receiving calls telling them to not to vote for PDM’s candidates.