PTI decides to field Yasmin Rashid as Senate candidate from Punjab

• Zulfi Bukhari, Hamid Khan to be PTI's candidate on general seats.
• Brigadier (retd) Musadiq to contest polls on technocrat seat.
• ECP to conduct election on 48 Senate seats on April 2.

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) senior leader Dr Yasmin Rashid will be the party's candidate for the Senate seat from Punjab in the upcoming elections of the upper house set to be held on April 2, The News reported on Thursday.

The announcement was made by PTI leader Mian Aslam Iqbal who took to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to disclose that Rashid would be the party's candidate for the women's seat.

Iqbal further said that the party would field Zulfi Bukhari and Hamid Khan on general seats, whereas Brigadier (retd) Musadiq will be the PTI candidate on a technocrat seat.

The development comes as the senior politician's earlier bid to secure a place in the National Assembly failed after she lost to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif on Lahore's NA-130 seat in the February 8 polls.

Rashid, like several other PTI leaders has been facing legal challenges after being booked in cases pertaining to the violent incidents of the May 9 riots last year which saw military installations being targeted after the arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan in a graft case.

52 seats in the upper house of parliament were vacated after the expiration of the 6-year term of the incumbent senators on March 11.

The elections, however, would be held to elect 48 senators as 4 reserved seats for the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) had been abolished after the 25th Constitutional amendment.

Polling would be held to elect members against seven general seats, two women, two seats for technocrats, including Ulema and one seat for non-Muslims from Sindh and Punjab.

In addition to this, lawmakers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan would elect members against seven general seats, two women and two seats for technocrats, including Ulema.

Members of the National Assembly will elect one general seat and one seat for technocrats, including Ulema from the federal capital, it added.

The electoral body has already appointed returning officers (ROs) in Islamabad and the four provinces for the conduct of the Senate election.

The development comes as by-polls for six Senate seats are underway for seats vacated from Sindh, Balochistan and Islamabad due to the prohibition of dual membership for lawmakers under Article 223 of the Constitution.