Treasury, opposition promise big surprise in today's Senate polls.

PESHAWAR -- All eyes are set on the Senate elections in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to be held today (Wednesday) with both treasury and opposition benches claiming to give each other a big surprise.

Sources close to the opposition parties told Dawn that while the combined opposition would comfortably win two general seats, they were poised to win the seats reserved for technocrats and women, too, with the third general seat being contested by PML-N's Abbas Afridi turning out to be a cliff-hanger.

'We have the numbers,' a senior opposition lawmaker said, denying the treasury's accusations of attempts by their rivals to buy votes.

He wondered if there was a rift within the ruling PTI though it had two-thirds majority in the house and some of its members were not happy with the government and wanted to vote for the opposition nominees, who could stop them.

There are 23 candidates for 12 seats from KP

The government, however, insisted that their house was in order and there was no chance of any of its members switching sides to vote for the opposition candidates.

'Everything is under control,' a treasury member said.

The ruling PTI and opposition parties in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have chalked out strategies for the Senate polls scheduled to be held today (Wednesday).

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, the polling will begin at 9am and last until 4pm.

Members of the ECP staff have also taken over the assembly hall to use it as polling stations and carried out the necessary arrangements to prepare it for polling day.

A total of 23 candidates from both sides are running for 12 Senate seats from the province.

A source told Dawn that the ruling party's lawmakers would gather at the Chief Minister's House in the morning before leaving for the provincial assembly.

He said the PTI had formed at least five panels of lawmakers to vote for its Senate nominees with ministers as their heads, while the candidate of the government's ally, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), would take care of its affairs by itself.

The source said local government minister Akbar Ayub Khan, government spokesperson Kamran Khan Bangash, labour minister Shaukat Yousafzai, Speaker of the provincial assembly Mushtaq Ghani and chief minister's aide Taj Mohammad Khan would lead their respective panels from the Chief Minister's House to the assembly hall.

JUI-F provincial information secretary Abdul Jalil Jan told Dawn that the opposition parties would sit down...