Political parties have started reaching out to each other and submitting their nomination papers to the relevant returning officers (ROs) for the upcoming Senate elections slated for April 2.
For the 12 Senate seats from Punjab, around 120 nomination papers have been received so far.
The PML-N has decided to give tickets to Ahad Cheema, Talal Chaudhry, Musadik Malik, Nasir Butt, and Pervaiz Rasheed for the Senate polls. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi will contest the Senate polls independently but he will be backed by the PML-N.
Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Hanif Abbasi, both central leaders of the PML-N and members of the National Assembly, submitted the nomination papers for Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar as proposers to contest for a Senate technocrat seat reserved for Islamabad. Party leader Tariq Javed has submitted his nomination papers for a seat reserved for minorities in the Senate.
Sources said Talal is likely to submit hit nomination papers on Saturday (today).
Other PML-N leaders likely to be named for the Senate seats include Hafiz Abdul Kareem, Saud Majeed, Khurram Dastgir, and Shaheen Khalid Butt.
Read PPP bags four seats in Senate by-polls
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has approved the names for the Senate seats from Balochistan. The party has issued tickets to Mir Changez Jamali, Sardar Umar Gorgage, Ijaz Ahmad Baloch, and Haji Mir Lal Muhammad Jattak for the general seats. Bilal Ahmad Mandokhail and Tariq Masoori were issued tickets for technocrat seats. Ishrat Baloch was given the ticket for a women’s seat in Senate.
The PPP chairman has also formed committees for negotiations with other political parties in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
PPP leaders Raja Pervez Ashraf, Syed Hassan Murtaza, Nadeem Afzal Chan, and Syed Ali Haider Gilani are part of the committee formed for Punjab.
The K-P committee includes Syed Khursheed Shah, Faisal Karim Kundi, Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha and Shuja Khan.
As for the PTI, its leaders Walid Iqbal and Shahzad Waseem have submitted their papers for the Senate seats from Punjab.
Former PTI provincial minister Mian Aslam Iqbal in a post on X wrote that the party had reached a consensus to nominate Zulfikar Bukhari and Hamid Khan as its nominees for the Senate seats.
Party leader Col (retired) Ijaz Minhas has been nominated as a covering candidate for the general seats.
Dr Yasmin Rashid and Brig (retired) Musadiq would be the PTI’s candidates for the women and technocrats seats, respectively.
Hamid has even received his nomination papers for the general seat of the Senate through his representative.
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