Our tickets were issued on merit, workers given top priority: CM

For the upcoming Senate elections, the Pakistan Peoples Party has maintained its longstanding tradition of awarding tickets to party workers on merit. This is a reflection of the PPP leadership’s commitment to the party’s workers.

This was stated by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday while addressing media personnel at the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) Karachi office. The CM was leading a delegation of PPP candidates, their proposers and seconders that came to file nomination papers for the March 3 Senate polls.

He asserted that the PPP top brass had selected candidates for the elections solely on merit, with preference being accorded to party workers. “The party has awarded tickets to Krishna from Tharparkar and Anwer Lal Dean from Karachi. They belong to the lower-middle class and are associated with the party’s minority wing.”

Replying to a question, Shah said the lawmakers were respected people of society and were people’s chosen representatives in their respective constituencies.

“It is wrong to propagate the impression that lawmakers’ votes in the Senate polls are somehow being ‘bought’,” he said, adding that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) MPA Khurram Sher Zaman should tell the media about the offer he received for his vote.

The CM accused the PTI lawmaker of having levelled the allegation only for political point-scoring. “The Senate elections are being held in a democratic way,” he stated. To another query, the chief minister said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) was

going through an intra-party crisis. “The question now is that how can the MQM-P serve its supporters when the party’s leaders are at loggerheads with each other,” said Shah.

Earlier, the chief minister served as the proposer for Maula Bux Chandio’s nomination papers, while his seconder was provincial minister Mumtaz Jakhrani. Former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah was the proposer for incumbent Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani.

A total of 20 candidates of the PPP filed nomination papers for 12 Senate seats. They are Krishna Lal Kolhi, Quratulain Marri, Nida Khuhro, Humaira Alwani, Anwar Lal Dean, Anthony Naveed, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Rukhsana Zuberi, Dr Younis Soomro, Taj Haider, Mian Raza Rabbani, Maula Bux Chandio, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Mohammad Ali Shah Jamote, Imamuddin Shoukeen, Ayaz Maher, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, Dost Ali Jessar, Javed Nayab Leghari and Qasim Soomro.