Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has agreed to give seven seats to Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) in Senate as the latter has promised to stand by PPP during the upcoming elections scheduled for March 2, it is learnt. The PPP move will cement its position as majority in the Senate will help the beleaguered regime to sail through the remaining one-and-a-half-years of its tenure.
According to sources, PML-Q had demanded 11 seats, while the PPP has convinced its best-ever ally for accepting seven, for some of its potential candidates belonging to different provinces. They said that the party will have one seat from the federal capital territory, three from Punjab and one from Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa and Sindh, respectively, while the final decision for seat adjustment, will be taken tomorrow [Monday].
The sources said PML-Q was hell-bent to re-elect Wasim Sajjad from Islamabad, while Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Kamil Ali Agha and Mustafa Malik from Punjab while Halim Adil Sheikh from Sindh. Half of the total Senators would retire on March 11 and the electoral college, will elect 54 new senators, including four on reserved seats for minorities. The minority representatives for the upper house would be taken from all four provinces.
The PPP has 27 seats in Senate and there are chances of gaining 21-25 more seats in upcoming elections after successful give and take with other allies in parliament. PPP insiders said many prominent leaders of the party including Raza Rabbani, Farhat Ullah Babar, Dr Babar Awan, Dr Fakharuddin Chaudhry, Naveed Chaudhry, Saif Magsi, Sardar Khurram Khosa, Shabina Riaz Sheikh and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gull had submitted their applications to the party secretariat.
The 50 senators who will retire on March 11, 2012, after completion of their constitutional tenure of six years included PML-Q's Tariq Azim Khan, Wasim Sajjad, Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, Saeed Ahmed Hashmi, Jan Muhammad Khan Jamali, Rehana Yahya Baloch, Mir Mohabat Khan Marri, Fauzia Fakhar-uz-Zaman, Saleem Saifullah Khan, Ammar Ahmed Khan, Simeen Siddiqui, Syed Javed Ali Shah, Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf Qazi (Retd), Mohammad Ali Durrani, Naeem Hussain Chattha, Gulshan Saeed, Nilofar Bakhtiar, SM Zafar and Haroon Khan while the PPP's Babar Awan, Mian Raza Rabbani, Muhammad Ghufran Khan, Dr Javaid Laghari, Ratna Bhagwandas Chawla, Safdar Abbasi are also going to complete their tenure.
PML-N's Mohammad Ishaq Dar, JUI-F's Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, MQM's Ahmed Ali, Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada and Moulana Gul Naseeb Khan, Rahmatullah Kakar, Sabina Rauf, Afia Zia, Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Muhammad Talha Mahmood and Professor Khurshid Ahmed are also included in the list of outgoing senators.
PkMAP's Abdur Rahim Khan Mandokhail, BNP-A's Mir Israrullah Khan, JWP's Shahid Hassan Bugti, PML-F's Syed Sajid Hussain Zaidi, Muhammad Ismail Buledi and ANP's Ilyas Bilour are also on the list while five independent senators including four Fata members - Hafiz Rashid Ahmad, Abdul Raziq, Abdur Rashid, Maulana Muhammad Saleh Shah and Dr Abdul Malik have also been included in the list.