Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Friday said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has finalized the names of its candidates for most of the Senate seats.
In a series of tweets, the federal minister disclosed that Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and Fauzia Arshad have been finalized as PTI candidates from Islamabad. He said Faisal Vawda will contest the Senate election from Sindh while Saifullah Abro will be the PTI candidate on technocrat seat. The name of Abdul Qadir from Balochistan has been finalized while Saifullah Niazi, Dr Zarqa and Barrister Ali Zafar will be the candidates from Punjab. The remaining seats will be announced later, he added.
The federal minister revealed that from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the names of Shibli Faraz, Mohsin Aziz, Dost Mohammad, Sania Nishtar and Farzana have been included in the final list while the remaining seats will be announced later.
Hafeez Shaikh, who is not a member of Parliament, was previously an adviser to the premier on finance and was appointed as finance minister in December last year. However, as per Article 91 (9) of the Constitution, he cannot remain a minister for more than six months until he is elected to one of the houses. Thus he must be elected to the Senate this time around in order to continue as the finance minister after June.
Nishtar, who is part of the PM’s cabinet as a special assistant, is also not a member of Parliament and therefore ineligible to hold the position of a minister.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a tweet from his official handle on Friday posted the list of party leaders nominated to contest the elections of upper house of parliament. From Sindh, PPP has awarded tickets to Jam Mehtab Dehar, Taj Haider, Saleem Mandviwala, Sherry Rehman and Shahadat Awan. On technocrat’s seats, Farooq H Naek, Shahadat Awan and Dr Karim Khawaja have been nominated by the party. Palwashah Khan and Khairulnisa Mughal have been given tickets for women’s seat while Rukhsana Shah is a covering candidate.
From Punjab, the party has nominated only one candidate, Azeem ul Haq Minhas, for the Senate elections. The PPP has proposed name of Farhatullah Babar and Yousaf Raza Gillani as joint candidates of Pakistan Democratic Movement from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Islamabad respectively. -In a statement, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said the party’s parliamentary board has so far shortlisted five names for the Senate polls. Advocate Aazam Nazir Tarrar will represent PML-N on the technocrat seat in Punjab. The party approved names of Pervez Rashid, Mushahidullah Khan and Professor Sajid Mir for the Senate general seats. On the women’s seat Barrister Sadia Abbasi will represent PML-N, she said.
Aurangzeb said the PML-N KP chapter will finalise the names after consultation at the party’s provincial level organisation.
JUI-F spokesperson Aslam Ghauri said in a statement that party has finalised the names of candidates from KP and Balochistan for Senate elections. Maulana Ataur Rehman and Tariq Khattak have been issued party tickets for the general seat from KP, he said. For technocrat seats, Zubair Ali and Kamran Murtaza have been nominated while Naeema Kishore and Asiya Nasir for women’s seats, said the spokesperson. Ranjit Singh and Heman Das have been issued tickets for minority seats. Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Khalil Ahmed Baledi have been chosen to contest the Senate polls on general seats from Balochistan, according to the party spokesperson.
ANP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa announced candidates of the party for Senate elections from the province. According to a statement issued by the Provincial Parliamentary Board of the party here Friday, Haji Hidayatullah would be party candidate on general seat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Similarly, Dr Shaukat Jamal Amirzada would be candidate on technocrat seat while Dr Tasleem Begum and Asif Bhatti have been nominated as candidate on women and minority seats of the party respectively.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday said that six candidates have submitted their nomination papers so far with returning officers (ROs) for contesting election on Senate vacant seats to be held on March 3.
According to an official of ECP, two candidates have filed their nomination papers from Punjab, one from Sindh and three from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In order to facilitate the candidates, the ECP has appointed five returning officers for Islamabad and four provinces while the candidates can file their nomination papers on Saturday also, he added. The polling will be held on 48 seats, two in Islamabad, 11 each in Punjab and Sindh, and 12 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, that will fall vacant on the expiration of the term of the members.
