In the fray: Many PML-N bigwigs eyeing Senate ticket

PM to address all 172 candidates today before short-listing names

LAHORE:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will address all 172 Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates ­— including a number of heavyweights — in Islamabad today (Monday) before finalising their names for the upcoming Senate elections to be held on March 3.

From Punjab, the largest province from where the party is likely to win all 11 seats, 120 candidates have applied for Senate tickets, party sources told The Express Tribune.

“Several heavyweights, already holding important portfolios, have applied for Senate tickets while there are only a handful of candidates who don’t have their family members already serving on key posts in the government,” said a senior party member.

According to sources, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Syed Tariq Fatemi, Political Secretary to Prime Minister Dr Asif Saeed Kirmani and Special Assistant to PM Irfan Siddiqui have also applied for Senate tickets.

Meanwhile, the party’s Sindh President Ismail Rahu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) President Sabir Shah, Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, Federal Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan’s father Ghulam Dastgir as well as the PML-N Balochistan president’s brother have applied for tickets.

“Federal ministers Mushahidullah Khan and Pervaiz Rashid and outgoing Senators Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Raja Zafarul Haq, Yaqoob Khan Nasir and Jaffar Iqbal are also among those who have applied for tickets,” another senior party leader told The Express Tribune.

“The Senate election is a test for the party as to whether it brings some new faces to the forefront or rewards the already tried and tested faces, who already have several important portfolios attached to their names,” said a party leader.

However, Punjab Assembly’s Parliamentary Secretary Rana Muhammad Arshad said the decision of awarding tickets will be made by the party on the basis of merit and performance. He said the PML-N will score a thumping victory in the Senate elections.

Currently, the PML-N has 16 seats in the upper house of parliament and eight of its senators — Yaqoob Khan Nasir, Jaffar Iqbal, Mushahidullah Khan, Pervaiz Rashid, Raja Zafarul Haq, Zafar Ali Shah, Prof Sajid Mir and Najma Hamid — are retiring in March.

The party is expected to win all 11 seats in Punjab. In Balochistan, the party is sure to get four seats but if an alliance is forged, it may even win five. It will win two seats from Islamabad, two from K-P and one from Fata. In Sindh, the party is in negotiations with other parties to bag one seat, either on women’s or technocrat’s quota.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2015.