Two candidates each from PPP, MQM elected unopposed following seat adjustment deal. PHOTO: EXPRESS
Four candidates have been elected unopposed to the upper house of the parliament following the release of a final list of Senate poll contestants by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday.
Of the 131 candidates who will be taking part in the election, two candidates each from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) have been elected unopposed from the Sindh Assembly on seats reserved for technocrats and women. These were PPP’s Farooq H Naek and Sassui Palijo, and MQM’s Barrister Saif Ali Khan and Nighat Mirza.
With four senators elected already, 48 upper house seats across Pakistan will be contested on March 5. Half of the 104 members of the upper house will then make way for the new 52 senators in mid-March after completing their six-year term.
With the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government unlikely to muster support for its proposed 22nd Amendment Bill – which seeks to curb horse trading by holding Senate polls through open ballot – by March 5, the ECP is set to hold the elections under the secret ballot system.
The commission will send the list of the remaining 127 candidates to the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) for the printing of more than 3,000 ballot papers for voting under the existing single transferable vote system.
Failure on the government’s part to amend the Constitution and laws pertaining to the procedure of the Senate polls will put up a daunting challenge for both PML-N and its rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in trying to ensure their lawmakers maintain party discipline and vote for their respective ticket-holders.
In total, 11 seats each – seven general and two each for technocrats and women – are to be contested from Sindh and Punjab. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, an additional seat reserved for minorities will be contested in addition to the 11 seats.
For the other seven general seats from Sindh, only eight candidates are in the run now. Nomination papers for 18 candidates on general seats were accepted in the province, but 10 of them withdrew their nominations following an understanding between the PPP and the MQM.
At a news conference outside the election commission office in Karachi, PPP Senator Rehman Malik also announced that his party had worked out a seat adjustment formula with MQM in Sindh under which all their candidates will be elected unopposed.
The PPP will get seven seats under the formula while the MQM will secure four, Malik said, adding that the candidates from either party have withdrawn their nominations in favour of the other. ‘This is a new step towards a working relationship between the PPP and the MQM,” said Malik.
For general seats from Sindh in the Senate, MQM’s Aminul Haque, Waseem Akhtar , Gul Faraz Khattak and Babar Ghauri have withdrawn their candidacy, and the party is fielding only Mian Atiq and Khushbakht Shujaat. The PPP’s candidates for the general seats are Rehman Malik, Islamuddin Shaikh, Saleem Mandviwalla, Engineer Ghiachand, and Abdul Latif Ansari.
In Punjab, the PPP is giving a tough time to PML-N by fielding candidates for general, technocrat and women’s seats. Had PML-N efforts to convince PPP from withdrawing its candidates succeeded, it would have secured all 11 seats unopposed.
Ten candidates are running for the seven general seats, three candidates each are running for the two women’s and two technocrat seats.
Interesting contests are expected in K-P and Balochistan. Twelve candidates –including ticket-holders from PTI, PPP and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), and independent hopefuls – are in the run for the seven general seats.
The three parties have also field six candidates in total for women’s seats and another six for technocrat seats. Three candidates, meanwhile, are running for the minorities’ seat.
A similar fluid situation exists in Balochistan where 14 candidates from various parties are in the race for the seven general seats. Seven candidates are contesting the two technocrat seats, six are running for the two women’s seats and five are hoping to secure the lone seat for minorities.
Amazingly, the four Senate seats from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas will be contested by a staggering 36 candidates, almost all of whom are not backed by any party.
Meanwhile, eight candidates are in the run for the single general and women’s seat in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), four for each category. Although both PPP and MQM have fielded candidates for these two seats, PML-N is poised to secure them both due to its numbers in the National Assembly which votes for these seats
After PML-N’s prime candidate for the ICT women’s seat, Rahila Magsi, was disqualified, the party’s covering candidate Nargis Nazir is now the leading contestant.
The PML-N has not withdrawn its covering candidate for Iqbal Zafar Jhagra for the ICT technocrat seat, though.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2015.
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