Senate elections 2012: PPP begins lobbying for unopposed elections

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has started lobbying within the political parties having representation in Sindh Assembly for unopposed elections of Senators from Sindh in the upcoming Senate elections due in March 2012, Business Recorder has learnt on Friday.
As many as 50 Senators including 11 from Sindh, will retire after completing their six-year term on March 11, 2012 and elections on their vacant seats will be held on the following day. However, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and senior PPP leader Khurshid Shah has recently hinted that Senate elections might be held in February 2012.
The PPP had succeeded in building consensus among the political parties having representation in the Sindh Assembly for unopposed elections of Senators from Sindh in 2009 elections. Eight Senators of PPP including Almas Parveen, Farooq Hamid Naek, Moula Bux Chandio, Gul Muhammad Lot, Islamuddin Sheikh and Syed Faisal Raza Abidi are among those who were elected unopposed in 2009 Senate elections from Sindh. All these Senators will complete their term in March 2015.
The Senators who are going to retire in March 2012 are; Mian Raza Rabbani and Safdar Abbasi of PPP, Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi and Ahmad Ali of the MQM, Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi of PML-Q, Chaudhry Sajid Hussain Zaidi of the PML-F and Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro of the JUI-F. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh of the PPP and Abdul Khaliq Pirzada of the MQM, who were elected on reserved seats for technocrats, will also retire this year, according to official details available with Business Recorder.
Seemeen Siddiqui of PML-Q and Ratna Bhagwandas Chawla of PPP, who were elected on reserved seats for women, will also retire this year. Sources said that during recent party meetings, President Asif Ali Zardari had directed senior PPP leaders including Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Agha Siraj Durani and others to make efforts for getting all senators from Sindh elected unopposed.
They said that following the president directives, the PPP leaders had started contacting different political parties. It is worth mentioning here that PPP has 93 members in Sindh Assembly followed by MQM with 51, PML-Q 11, PML-F eight, National People's Party (NPP) three and Awami National Party has two members.