Senate polls: Nomination papers of all PPP candidates from Sindh approved by ECP

(Karachi) The nomination papers of all candidates of Pakistan People’s Party from Sindh for the Senate election have been approved by the Election Commission of Pakistan, local media reported on Thursday.

The election commission will conduct scrutiny of the nomination papers of further 22 candidates submitted for 11 senate seats for general as well as the seats for technocrats and women categories.

The commission has summoned PTI’s Faisal Vawda, GDA’s Pir Sadruddin Shah Rashdi, MQM’s Amir Khan and other senate candidates.

The PPP has issued tickets to Taj Haider, Shahadat Awan, Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar, Salim Mandviwalla and Sherry Rehman, for Sindh’s general seats. For the technocrat seats, tickets were given to Farooq Naek, Karim Ahmed Khawaja and Shahadat Awan, while for the women’s seat, Palwasha Khan, Khairunisa Mughal and Rukhsana Shah have been nominated by the party.

Over 65 per cent of the senators who are set to retire on March 11 after completing their six-year constitutio­nal term belong to the opposition parties. The number of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf senators may double after the electoral exercise to reach 28 from existing 14, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is likely to be the biggest loser in terms of representation in the Senate as 17 of its 29 senators will retire next month and the party would be able to retain just five, taking the total strength to 17.

The Pakistan Peoples Party’s strength in the house will slightly come down from 21 to 19. Among the allies of the ruling party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement will be the only loser, with its party’s strength slipping down from five to three, while another ally, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), will emerge stronger, with the number of its senators growing from 10 to 13.