Samiul Haq among 34 who submit nomination papers

PTI gives tickets to 10 candidates

PESHAWAR: As many as 34 Senate hopefuls filed their nomination papers with the top poll body on Thursday, including Maulana Samiul Haq, the chief of his eponymous faction of the Jamiat Ulema Islam.

As many as 11 seats are up for grabs in the elections for the upper house, scheduled to be held on March 3. These include seven seats in the general category, two each for the technocrat and women seats. Polling for these seats will take place in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assembly.

For the general seats, the ruling PTI has fielded six candidates along with Haq, who submitted his nomination papers with support from the PTI.

PTI’s candidates for general seats include core committee member Faisal Javed Khan, Muhammad Ayub Afridi (the father-in-law of wealthy businessman Javed Afridi), PTI’s general secretary for Malakand Fida Hussain, and Hangu MNA Khayal Zaman.  Ali Khan and Zafarullah Khattak are said to be the covering candidates.

Abdul Latif Yousafzai, the K-P advocate general, has submitted his nomination papers for the general and technocrat category on a PTI ticket.

JUI-S Chief Haq has also submitted his nomination papers in the general and technocrat category.

PML-N has submitted papers for four candidates in the general category including former provincial chief minister Pir Sabir Shah, former law minister Ali Afzal Khan Jadoon, former Senator Muhammad Qasim Shah and Haji Dildar Khan.

The PPP has backed Faisal Sakhi Butt, who is a relative of the Bilour family. Its second candidate is Bahramand Tangi.  The ANP has given a ticket to its former MNA Masood Abbas.

The JI has named its provincial chief Mushtaq Ahmed Khan and provincial general secretary Abdul Wasi as candidates.

JUI-F has two candidates in the running including Maulana Gul Naseeb and a re-election bid for Senator Talha Mahmood.

The QWP has nominated its former senator Muhammad Ghufran. In technocrats, the PTI has nominated Senator Azam Swati and Abdul Latif Yousafzai.

The PML-N has backed Dilawar Khan, while the JUI-F has backed Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh.

For the reserved seats for women, the PTI has named K-P assembly’s Deputy Speaker Dr Mehar Taj Roghani and Naureen Farooq Khan. The JUI-F has nominated Naeema Kishwar while the ANP has nominated Shagufta Malik.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2018.