As many as 100 candidates are in run for the upcoming Senate election from all four provinces and the federal capital.
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), around 100 candidates have submitted their nomination papers so far with the returning officers (ROs) for contesting election on 48 vacant seats of Senate scheduled to be held on March 3.
Sharing the details, the ECP official said, 17 candidates have filed their nomination papers from Punjab, 22 from Sindh, 30 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 25 from Balochistan and six from Islamabad. As many as 23 nomination papers have been submitted for woman seats while eight for non-Muslim and 18 nomination papers have been submitted for technocrats and ulema seats besides 51 for general seats.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nomination papers from Abbas Afridi, Shibli Faraz,Sania Nishtar, Farzana Javed, Shazia Tehmas Khan, Falk Naz, Hamidul Haq, Nasarullah Wazir, Farhatullah Babar, Zubair Ali, Rehan Alam, Dost Muhammad,, Ranjit Singh, Gurdeep Singh and Aarish Kumar have been received so far.
In Balochistan, Sarfaraz Bugti, Sitara Ayaz, Abdul Qadir, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Khalilur Rehman Buledi, Muhammad Qasim, Israrullah Zehri, Abdul Khaliq Khan, Benish Sikandar, Atifa, Naseema Ihsan, Samina Mumtaz, Kashifa Kukui, Sania Khan, Kamran Murtaza, Naveed Jan Baloch, Sajjad Tareen, Syed Ahmed Hashmi, Hamen Das, Danish Kumar have submitted their nomination papers so far.
In Punjab, Kamil Ali Agha, Jamshid Iqbal Cheema, Muhammad Khan Madani, Mushahidullah Khan, Pervaiz Rasheed, Saiful Malook, Muhammad Azeemul Haq, Saifullah Niazi, Afnanullah Khan, Saud Majeed, Robina Akhtar, Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, Aon Abbas, Zirqa Suharwardi, Saeeda Abbasi, Azam Nazir Tarar and Syed Ali Zafar have submitted their nomination papers so far.
Similarly, in Sindh, nomination papers from Sadiq Ali Memon, Saleem Mandviwalla, Sherry Rehman, Dost Ali Jaiser, Jam Mehtab Dehar, Taj Haider, Shahadat Awan, Zafar Ahmed, Sohail Mansoor Khawaja, Abdul Qadir Khanzada, Palwasha Khan. Rukhsana Parveen, Khairunisa, Khalida Ateeb, Sabeen Ghuri, Farooq H Naek, Dr Kareem Khawaja have been received.
Meanwhile, in the federal capital, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, Fozia Arshad, Farzana, Furrukh Naz Akbar have submitted their nomination papers so far.
The polling will be held on March 3 on 48 seats, two in Islamabad, 11 each in Punjab and Sindh, and 12 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. A total of 52 senators in the Upper House of 104 are set to retire on March 11 on completion of their six-year term. The number includes four of the eight senators from the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
As the seats representing FATA will not be filled due to the merger of the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in May 2018, the Senate strength will shrink to 100.
The legislators will also vote to elect seven members on general seats including two women and two technocrats in the four provinces. Besides, the election on one minority seat each in KP and Balochistan will also be conducted. More than 65 per cent of the senators due to retire belong to the opposition parties.
Meanwhile, PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that parliamentary board of the party has nominated seven candidates for Senate elections from Punjab. In a statement on Sunday, she said that the party has given approval of names of Irfan Siddiqui, Zahid Hamid, Engr Balighur Rehman, Saira Afzal Tarar and Saiful Malook Khokhar. Meanwhile, PML-N has also finalized names of candidates for Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Abbas Afridi will be candidate on general seat, Rehan Alam Alam Khan for technocrat and Farrah Khan has been nominated for woman seat.
Separately, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has decided to contest elections on 10 Senate seats in Sindh. According to the details, MQM-P’s candidates will submit their nomination papers on 10 out of 11 Senate seats in the province. MQM’s Rauf Siddiqui, Dr Shahab Imam and Khizar Ali Zaidi have submitted their papers for the technocrat seat. Faisal Subzwari, Khuwaja Sohail Mansoor, Rauf Siddiqui, Dr. Zaffar Kamali and Abdul Qadir Khanzada have submitted their nomination papers for general seats of the Senate. However, two candidates of the party have submitted their forms for women-specific seats.
