The ruling coalition won 18 out of 19 Senate seats on Tuesday unofficial results showed. Polls were postponed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the dispute over swearing in opposition members elected to reserved seats.

Elections were contested on as many as 19 seats – 12 seats in Sindh, five seats in Punjab, and two seats in the federal cabinet. A total of 11 seats in KP would also have been up for grabs if the elections took place.

According to the breakdown, the PML-N won six, the PPP 11 while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan bagged one seat. Tuesday’s victory has increased the N-league’s number in the Upper House of Parliament to 19 while the PPP’s have risen to 24.

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, and independent candidate Faisal Vawda won Senate seats.

Dar won on a technocrat seat from Islamabad. He got 222 votes with Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) Raja Ansar Mehmood coming in second with 81. Aurangzeb also won a technocrat seat.

In a post on X, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the successful senators and said the polls were a continuation of the democratic process.

“It is hoped that senators will play their role for the upliftment of the Constitution and the development of the country. Newly elected senators should participate in effective legislation for public welfare and national development and prosperity,” he said.

The voting began at 9am and continued until 4pm.

However, polling could not start in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly and uncertainty continued to persist over whether polls would be held. The polls were later called off.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had warned that Senate elections in KP would be postponed if newly-elected reserved seat members could not take the oath.

However, the oath has still not taken place and elections could not take place as a result. Just after 10 am, the opposition parties also asked for polls to be postponed in KP.

A total of four types of ballot papers are being used in the election: white ballot papers for general seats, green for technocrats, pink for women and white for minority seats.

Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari appointed FM Dar as the presiding officer for the first session of the upper house of Parliament.

The Prime Minister’s Office summary quoted the rules of procedure for the Senate: “The first meeting of the Senate for election of the chairman shall be presided over by the outgoing chairman or, in his absence, by a person nominated by the president, for the purpose, hereinafter in this rule and in rule 10 referred to as the presiding officer; provided that no person shall preside over the meeting for the election in which he himself is a candidate.”