ISLAMABAD — In a major setback to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, the country’s Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh narrowly lost a key Senate seat to former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who was the joint opposition candidate, in a bitterly-contested election on Wednesday.

The former premier, who was backed by a group of opposition parties, won by getting 169 votes in a vote by the lawmakers of parliament’s lower house, against 164 secured by Shaikh. Seven votes were rejected after a total of 340 members of the lower house of the parliament voted.

Shahbaz Gill, a premier Khan’s spokesman, said in a Twitter post.

The defeat of a key member of the Cabinet has dealt a humiliating blow to the government with the opposition claiming the government has lost the majority.

Khan’s government, however, faces no imminent threat as a result of the Senate vote, as he can be removed only through a vote of no confidence in the parliament.

Polling, which was scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., ended at the set time, with the counting of the votes underway. Lawmakers voted for some 37 vacant seats in the Senate, with 11 senators previously elected unopposed from Punjab. — Agencies