Pakistan's ruling People's Party (PPP) became the majority party with 27 seats in the upper House after the senate elections on Wednesday, local press reported on Thursday.

The election was supposed to be held on 50 seats vacated by senators who will retire after the completion of their term on March 11.

Candidates competed for only 19 seats on Wednesday as 31 seats had already been bagged by candidates earlier.

According to local newspaper The News, the PPP got 22 seats in the election, out of which eight seats came from Sindh province, four from Punjab, two from the Federal Capital and five from the North West Frontier Province and three from Balochistan province.

The PPP is followed by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid (PML-Q) which has 22 senators in the upper House after the election.

The President of PML-Q Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain who was defeated in the general election for a National Assembly, the Lower House of the parliament, became a senator in the election.

The Election Commission is likely to issue the names of the returned candidates on Thursday.

The membership of the Senate, which was originally 45, was raised to 63 in 1977 and to 87 in 1985. The government of Pervez Musharraf raised the membership of the Senate from 87 to 100 in 2002.

The term of senators in Pakistan is six years.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2009)