PESHAWAR (Dunya News) – PTI-backed independent candidate Khurram Zeeshan has won the Senate by-election from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, securing 91 votes out of the 137 cast by provincial lawmakers on Thursday.
The seat had fallen vacant following the disqualification of PTI leader and opposition leader in the Senate, Shibli Faraz, after his conviction in cases linked to the May 9, 2023 riots.
The polling took place inside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s Jirga Hall, where PPP MPA Ehsanullah Khan cast the first vote. Voting began at 9:30am and concluded at 4pm, supervised by provincial election commissioner Saeed Gul, who served as the returning officer.
Out of the Assembly’s total 145 members, 137 cast their ballots. PTI-backed Zeeshan needed at least 73 votes to win but comfortably surpassed the threshold, defeating PML-N-supported independent Taj Mohammad Afridi, who received 45 votes. Four Awami National Party (ANP) lawmakers abstained from voting.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi also participated in the polling and posted on X expressing his support for Zeeshan.
Congratulations cheetah @khurramzeeshan pic.twitter.com/4EKURdmv3J
— Sohail Afridi (@SohailAfridiISF) October 30, 2025Following his victory, Zeeshan shared a post on Facebook, saying, “Thank God,” and told reporters that PTI’s priority remains “Pakistan’s haqeeqi azadi” (true freedom), echoing party founder Imran Khan’s slogan.
The by-election was necessitated after Shibli Faraz’s disqualification, which created a vacancy in the Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A day before the polling, the Supreme Court dismissed Faraz’s request to halt the by-election, while the Peshawar High Court had earlier refused to reinstate him and two MNAs, directing them to surrender before the relevant court instead.
Zeeshan and another PTI member, Irfan Saleem, had earlier been nominated for the 2024 Senate elections, but those polls were postponed and later held in July 2025. Saleem served as Zeeshan’s covering candidate in the by-election.