PPP to field seven candidates against 11 seats in Sindh

Karachi
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided to field seven candidates, against eight retiring Senators, against 11 seats in Sindh for the upcoming Senate elections.
The names of candidates were revealed by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, who is the secretary-general of PPP-Parliamentarians, while addressing a press conference at the party’s media cell on Monday after three-day long deliberations from February 6 to Feb 8.
He was accompanied by PPPP vice president Sherry Rehman, Senator Saeed Ghani, second PPPP vice president Khanzada Khan and Sindh health minister Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar.
Former prime minister Ashraf said the PPP had decided to award tickets to seven candidates on the basis of its strength in the Sindh Assembly.
The names of seven lucky candidates to be awarded tickets for Senate elections include former federal law minister and former chairman Senate Farooq Hamid Naek on the seat reserved for technocrats and Sassui Palijo on the reserved seat for women. Other five candidates from Sindh are Rehman Malik, Saleem Mandviwalla, Islamuddin Sheikh, Engineer Gyan Chand and Abdul Lateef Ansari.
Four of them, Farooq H Naek, Rehman Malik, Saleem Mandviwalla and Islamuddin Sheikh are also retiring senators.
The other retiring PPP senators are Maula Bakhsh Chandio, Gul Muhammad Lot, Abdul Qayoom Soomro, and Almas Parveen.
In Punjab, tickets will be awarded to Nadeem Afzal Chan for Punjab, Nargis Faiz Malik for federal seat, while in Khyber-Pakhthunkhwa, Khanzada Khan and Noor Alam will contest on general seats while Humayoon Khan will contest from the reserved seat for technocrats.
Since the PPP will field seven candidates for 11 Senate seats in Sindh, vacant seats will make room for party to strike an agreement with the two major opposition parties, Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F).
Speaking at the press conference, Ashraf said the PPP had been continuing with the dialogue process with other major political parties for seat adjustment.
He said deciding candidates who will be awarded tickets was a tough decision for the PPP’s parliamentary board, which met under the supervision of party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, because all the candidates who had applied for tickets were eligible and qualified politicians.
He said only in Sindh more than 100 PPP leaders had applied for tickets for the Senate election.
Ashraf said the PPP had 40 members in the Senate out of which 20 were going to retire, out of which eight were from Sindh. Hence, the names of new contestants were announced to make up for the retiring strength of the Senate.
Other candidates from Sindh who would continue to be Senators are Saeed Ghani, Taj Haider, Raza Rabbani, Ajiz Dhamra, Hari Ram, Dr Kareem Khawaja and Sehar Kmran.
Meanwhile, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Babar Awan will continue to be members of the Senate from Punjab, Farhatullah Khan Babar, Ahad Hassan, Saifullah Bangash, Rubina Khalid will continue from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Osman Saifullah Khan from federal seat, while Yousuf Baloch, Saifullah Magsi and Rozi Khan Kakar will continue to be members of the Senate from Balochistan.
Ashraf said even after retirement of 20 of its Senators, the PPP will continue to play a positive and constructive role in the upper house of the parliament.