Upper house: PPP invites applications for Senate tickets

The party holds key posts of chairman, deputy chairman and opposition leader

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) has invited applications from candidates who want to contest Senate polls scheduled to take place in the mid of March.

Registered with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the name of Pakistan Peoples’ Party Parliamentarians, the party asked candidates willing to contest upcoming polls to file their applications by January 30. According to a statement by Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, secretary general of PPPP, candidates are required to send their applications to PPPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim along with a bank draft of Rs50,000 in his name to PPPP Central Secretariat Embassy Road, Islamabad.

Half of the total strength, 40 in number, will be retiring in March this year. Among those will be the Chairman Senate Syed Nayyer Bukhari and deputy chairman Sabir Baloch, besides Sughra Imam, Farhat Abbass, Kazim Khan, Sardar Ali, Maula Buksh Chandio, Islamuddin Sheikh, Gulzar Khan, Jahangir Baddar, Qayoom Soomro, Gul Muhammad Lot, Mir Yousaf, Saleem Mandviwalla, Waqar Khan, Rehman Malik, Farooq Naek, Almas Parveen, Saeeda Iqbal and Suriya Amiruddin.

Since PPP could not do well in the 2013 general elections in other provinces, it is in probability that the party will have its seats decreased in the Upper House.

However, it would win some seats again from Sindh and few from other provinces. With these new seats and 20 other senators already retaining seats till March 2018, the PPPP would still have a sizeable strength.

Half of the senate’s members retire every three years and are replaced with new ones. The electoral college for the senators from provinces comprises members of their respective assemblies. The college for senators from the federal capital is made up of the members of National Assembly while the NA members of Fata elect senators from Fata.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2015.