PPP shortlists candidates for upcoming Senate elections

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has shortlisted candidates from Sindh for the upcoming Senate elections to be held on March 3, ARY News reported on Friday.

PPP will submit nomination papers of two candidates on each Senate seat from Sindh. It emerged that Farooq H Naek, Taj Haider and Shahadat Awan will submit their nomination papers for technocrat seat.

It is expected that Salim Mandviwalla, Palwasha Khan and Sherry Rehman will also be awarded the election tickets by PPP.

The expected candidates for Senate seats have been summoned to the Sindh’s Chief Minister House today. The party’s parliamentary board will make a final announcement in a few days after finalising the names of the candidates.

From Punjab, the son-in-law of former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf, Raja Azeemul Haq will contest the Senate elections. The candidate has received its nomination papers from the ECP office which he is likely to submit it on Saturday (tomorrow).

Read: Nawaz, Fazl discuss long march, Senate elections

Sources told ARY News that PPP central leadership tasked Syed Hassan Murtaza to begin campaigning for Raja Azeemul Haq. The political party has also made contacts with Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) to field Raja Azeemul Haq as the joint candidate of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) in Punjab.

It may be noted here that PPP has seven lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly.

It is pertinent to mention here that Senate elections will be held on 11 seats from Sindh.

A total of forty-eight senators will be elected this time including twelve each from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, eleven each from Punjab and Sindh and two from Islamabad.

On Thursday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had unveiled the schedule for the Senate elections in the four provinces.

Read: PTI board shortlists candidates for Senate elections

According to the top electoral body, the polling to elect legislators for the upper house of the parliament will be held on March 3. 48 lawmakers of the Senate will retire on March 3.

As many as 52 senators are set to retire — 50 per cent of the 104-member house — on March 11 after completing their six-year tenure. However, this time there will be no polling for the four seats of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) after its merger with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

As per the schedule issued by the ECP, public notice inviting nomination papers will be issued by the Returning Officers on February 11. The ECP will accept submission of the nomination papers on February 12 and 13.

Meanwhile, the scrutiny process for the nominations is to be completed on February 15 and 16, and the final list of the contestant will be issued later on Feb 21, while the candidates can withdraw their nomination papers on February 22.