Rana Sana joins politicians who served as MPA, MNA and senator

LAHORE: Out of hundreds of politicians representing mainstream political parties in the Parliament, only a few have the privilege of serving as the members of Provincial Assembly, National Assembly and Senate.

Rana Sanaullah, a senior leader of PMLN, is one of those few politicians who has been privileged to have won the elections for Provincial Assembly, Lower House of Parliament (National Assembly) and Upper House (Senate).

Before Rana Sanaullah, the politicians who have set up this unique record include former President Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan Leghari, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Mohsin Leghari and Syed Mustafa Kamal. Sardar Farooq Ahmad Khan served as Senator in 1970s whereas in the 1988 general elections, he won both National and Provincial Assembly seat but preferred to take oath in PA. However, after IJI former Government in Punjab, Sardar Farooq, a PPP stalwart then, quit the Punjab Assembly seat and ran for the NA seat in by-polls and won. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan of PPP became MPA from Gujrat in 1977 general elections. He became MNA in 1988 and 1990 general elections and became Senator in 1994 and 2009. Sardar Mohsin Khan Leghari, who became the National Alliance MPA in 2003 by polls served as MPA till 2012 and became Senator. He became MPA again in 2018 and became MNA in 2022 by polls from the seat vacated by his uncle Sardar Jaffar Khan Leghari. Mustafa Kamal, presently MQM Pakistan MNA and former District Nazim of Karachi got elected as MPA in 2002 from PS 117, Karachi. He became Senator a decade later and now he is sitting MNA. Saif Ullah Dharejo also enjoys this unique distinction of taking oath in three houses.

Besides, there have been politicians who served as MPA and then became Senator like PPP’s late Sheikh Rafique Ahmad, former PMLN MPA Haroon Akhtar Khan, Salim Zia (got elected as MPA from Karachi in 1997), former Ameer Jamat e Islami Siraj ul Haq, Saeed Ghani of PPP while there are noted politicians who served as MNA and Senator but not as MPA.