Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will seek a vote of confidence in parliament after the government’s finance minister lost his bid for a Senate seat in an election on Wednesday, the foreign minister said.
Khan’s ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and its political allies were bidding to wrest control of Pakistan’s Senate from opposition parties in indirect elections to 37 seats in the 104-member upper house of parliament.
Complete results have yet to come in, but local media reports suggest that the PTI and its allies gained ground in the Senate, possibly enough to gain a majority.
However, an election official announced that Khan’s finance minister, Abdul Hafiz Sheikh, had not succeeded in winning the seat he was contesting.
The loss represents a significant blow to Khan and the government, because the electoral college in Sheikh’s case was the lower house of parliament, which chooses the prime minister of the country and in 2018 handed a majority to Khan. (The Hindu)