MPAs invited to elect new Senate members

Karachi
The Sindh election commissioner invited provincial lawmakers on Wednesday to elect seven members for the Senate’s general seats, two members for seats reserved for women and two members for seats reserved for technocrats.
The new members will replace those who will retire on March 11.
According to the schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the returning officer will continue receiving nominations papers from Thursday to Friday.
The scrutiny of nominations papers will be carried out on February 16 and 17.
The last date for filing appeals against the rejection of nominations papers will continue on Friday on February 20 and 21.
The appeals regarding objections will be disposed of on February 23 and 24 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is February 25.
The final list of candidates will be announced on February 25.
The polling will be held on March 3 in the provincial assembly building. The senators will be elected for a six-year term.
PPP can easily win
Based on the numerical strength of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the national and provincial assemblies, Nisar Khuhro believes the party can easily win six of the 11 seats in the Senate elections scheduled for March 3.
Addressing the media at his office in the Sindh Assembly building on Wednesday, the education minister said the PPP was negotiating with other political parties for securing the seventh seat in the Upper House polls.
He said there was no harm in holding talks with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), as both parties were once coalition partners of the PPP.
The minister said uncontested elections would be a good omen for democracy, as it would prevent the trend of horse-trading in the Senate polls.
He said the PPP was in touch with the PML-F, adding that it would be premature to say whether the Senate polls would be uncontested because nomination papers of prospective candidates were yet to be submitted.
In case the Senate elections were to be uncontested, then there would be no chance for the concerned quarters to level allegations of horse-trading and trading of votes against the elected representatives of people.
Khuhro said that at this stage it would be premature to say whether or not the PML-F would be able to bag a Senate seat in the upcoming polls.
He said he was not aware whether or not the opposition parties of the province would field a consensus candidate for the elections.
Nomination papers of prospective candidates would be received on February 12 and 13 for the Senate elections on 52 seats, of which 11 are from Sindh.
The PPP has announced that it would field seven candidates for 11 Senate seats from Sindh, including five candidates for general seats in the Upper House of the Parliament.
Speaking on the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the minister said that after adoption of the amendment, the subject of education had been devolved to provinces, so in such a scenario formation of a national curriculum council by the federal government was tantamount to usurping the constitutional rights and the autonomy of the provinces.