Unlike elections to the National and Provincial Assemblies, election to the Senate of Pakistan is indirect with the National and Provincial Assemblies being the electoral college to elect the members from the federal capital and the respective provinces. The Elections Act 2017 explains this this distinction in Chapter-VII.
What does the law say?
Section 107 of the Elections Act 2017 requires the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to notify Senate elections by issuing a notification to members of the relevant Assembly — Provincial Assembly members for provincial seats, National Assembly members for Islamabad seats — and by publishing the notification in the official Gazette. The notification is addressed to the elected legislators, because they are the Senate electorate.
Each Province’s senators are elected by that Province’s Assembly. The number of senators elected by each Assembly corresponds to the constitutional seat allocation for that Province under Article 59. In the Senate, seats are allocated by category: 14 general seats, four women’s seats, four technocrat/aalim seats, and one non-Muslim seat for each Province, and two general, one woman, and one technocrat/aalim seat for Islamabad Capital Territory.
Why does this matter?
Understanding the indirect nature of Senate elections has civic implications. You don’t see much of public campaigning for Senate elections because the candidates do not need votes of the general public. The voters who count in these elections are Assembly members.
This also means that accountability for Senate election outcomes runs through Assembly members.
 Source: Elections Act 2017, Section 107.
This post is part of FAFEN’s series on electoral literacy. Read more of this series here.
