The hot seat: CM certain the PPP will win the elections

A meeting was held at Chief Minister House to ensure a foolproof strategy so people can vote for their candidates.

KARACHI:

The word around town is that deals are being made to share power in the upcoming Senate elections set to be held at the Sindh Assembly on March 5.

To avoid this, a meeting was held at Chief Minister House to ensure a foolproof strategy could be implemented so people can vote for their candidates.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Nisar Khuhro, speaker of the Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani and other MPAs of the party along with Senate ticket holders were present at the meeting.

“The opposition claims to have support from a few PPP MPAs,” said the chief minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah. “I am 100 per cent sure that their statements are just political rhetoric and we will win the election.”

The Sindh Assembly currently has 167 members — the 168th seat has been vacant since Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Irfanullah Marwat was disqualified by the election tribunal.

Around 11 Senators from Sindh are going to retire on March 11 — the PPP has 91 members fighting for seven seats with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is confident of securing four seats with 51 MPAs.

The opposition — PML-N and Pakistan Muslim League- Functional (PML-F) have a total of 21 MPAs in the House - they are hoping to win a general seat and claim to have support from a few PPP MPAs who will vote for their candidate, Imamuddin Shauqeen.

“Around 20 to 21 MPAs can elect one senator for a general seat,” said PML-F’s Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah. “Our strength is more than this and we will get one senator elected.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2015.