PPP gives Senate ticket to Saleem Mandviwala

The seat was vacated by the resignation of Dr Asim Hussain.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party has allotted the ticket for the Senate seat vacated by Dr Asim Hussain to Saleem Mandviwala. Dr Hussain, the federal adviser on petroleum and natural resources, had resigned after the Supreme Court’s verdict in the dual nationality case.  

Mandviwala along with the Sindh chief minister, Qaim Ali Shah, information minister, Sharjeel Inam Memon, and a dozen provincial ministers and MPAs submitted his nomination papers to the provincial election commissioner, Sono Khan Baloch, on Tuesday.

No other political party, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, National Peoples Party or the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, has nominated its candidate. The PPP’s Rashid Rabbani has been listed as the covering candidate for Mandviwala by the ruling party.

Since the opposition parties in Sindh Assembly do not have a “sufficient” strength, they have decided not to nominate their candidates for the senate by-election scheduled for November 21.

“Only two candidates, both from the ruling PPP, have filed their papers until now.  We will start the scrutiny on Wednesday (today). If no other candidates turn up, the election commission can declare Mandviwala as the unopposed senator,” the provincial election commissioner told The Express Tribune.

Mandviwala has previously served as the president of the Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industries and is currently the Board of Investment chairman. “Looking at his performance [in terms of bringing investment to Pakistan], the party has given him the Senate ticket,” said Qaim Ali Shah while talking to the media after submitting Mandviwala’s nomination papers at the provincial election commission office.

Afterwards, the Sindh chief minister also held a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim at his Karachi office.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2012.