special woman federal seat, which will be elected by the National Assembly. She joined the PML-N in March 2013.
Kiran Dar, who will be a new face in the Senate, sounds a new name, but she was earlier member of the Punjab assembly on the PML-N ticket and has been a loyal party leader.
Dr Ghous Niazi is also a new face. He is the president of the PML-N, Khushab, and contested the 2002 general elections on the PML-N ticket. He lost by getting 23,074 votes as against the winner, independent Saifullah Tiwana, and runner-up Shabbir Awan of the PML-Q. He is also counted among those who have stood with the PML-N.
Political Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr Asif Kirmani, who belongs to a distinguished family of Lahore and his father was a committed Leaguer, is also a new face in the Senate.
Former member of the Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Tanvir, who has been on the sidelines of the party and has been quite inactive since long, has been preferred. His nomination has not been received well by one of his noted party fellows, who is a powerful federal minister. Chaudhry Tanvir, who is a moneyed man, could not contest previous general elections for lacking the university qualification and also due to his involvement in the Supreme Court storming case.
The Rawalpindi division takes pride in contributing Pervaiz Rashid (settled in Lahore), Mushahidullah Khan, Chaudhry Tanvir, Lt-Gen (R) Abdul Qayyum, Raja Zafarullah and Najma Hameed.
Another important highlight of the Punjab nominations is that they have not been given to fabulously rich people, tycoons or industrialists. Rather, most of the candidates, including Pervaiz Rashid, Nihal Hashmi, Mushahidullah Khan, Kiran Dar, Dr Asif Kirmani, Prof Sajid Mir and Raja Zafarullah belong to the middle class.
In addition, former generals—Abdul Qayyum and Salahuddin Tirmizi—have been preferred over ex-bureaucrats like Tariq Fatemi.It appears from the nominations that the PML-N is certain to get all the eleven seats from Punjab, four seats from Balochistan, two seats from Islamabad, and a minority seat from the federal capital.