Senate elections: PPP unveils candidates

PPP, MQM, PML-F said to have reached understanding for March 3 polls

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday unveiled its candidates for the Senate elections scheduled for March 3.

Speaking at a news conference in Karachi, former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, who is also secretary general of PPP’s parliamentary board, announced the names of party’s candidates for the upcoming elections. Former law minister Farooq H Naek will contest for a technocrat seat, while Sassi Palejo will be in the race for a women’s seat from Sindh, he said.

For general seats in Sindh, former interior minister Rehman Malik, Islamuddin Shaikh, Saleem H Mandviwala, Engineer Gianchand and Abdul Latif Ansari will be in the race. Palijo, Ansari and Gianchand are fresh candidates while the other nominees are going for a re-election.

Ashraf said Nadeem Afzal Chan will be the only PPP candidate contesting the upper house election on a general seat from Punjab. From Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Khanzada Khan and Noor Alam will contest the elections, where a technocrat seat has been allotted to Humayoon Khan. Nargis Faiz Malik, president PPP women’s wing in Islamabad, has been nominated for a general seat in Islamabad. The PPP did not announce any candidate from Balochistan.

Ashraf hoped the PPP would again emerge as a leading party in the upper house elections. Sources said an understanding has been reached among the PPP, MQM and Pakistan Muslim League–Functional (PML-F) in Sindh. According to the understanding, the PPP will have seven seats from Sindh and give three seats to the MQM and one seat to the PML-F. Nominees of the three parties are likely to be elected unopposed in the province.

Ashraf assured the media that PPP’s nominees had been selected after in-depth discussion with party members. Asked about the absence of PPP senior vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who being a member of the party’s parliamentary board, did not show up in the interview process, Ashraf said Fahim was abroad for a routine medical checkup but the selection process took place in consultation with him.

At the news conference Ashraf was flanked by PPP vice president Sherry Rehman and Senator Saeed Ghani.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2015.