LAHORE, Jan 7: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal chief Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani will be a candidate for Senate from Sindh, party sources here confirmed on Tuesday.

The sources said that he would also run for Senate chairmanship as some opposition parties had indicated that they would support him for the office.

Even if the opposition parties refused to extend their support for the purpose, he would at least have the opportunity to become opposition leader of the house as the MMA would emerge as the second largest party after the PML-Q in Senate, they said.

According to them, victory of Maulana Noorani as a Senator from Sindh was almost confirmed as the PPP had assured its help in this regard.

A candidate for Senate from Sindh province needs 12 votes, while the MMA has 11 MPAs in the provincial assembly. One of them, a woman MPA, has already switched over to the PML-Q and supported it in the elections to Sindh chief minister and speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly.

The sources said that the MMA’s supreme council, which is meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday (today), was also likely to nominate religious alliance’s vice-president and Islami Tehrik chief Allama Sajid Naqvi as MMA candidate for Senate from the Punjab.

The JUP will also put up the name of its senior leader and MMA information secretary Pir Ijaz Hashmi as a hopeful for Senate from the NWFP. Mr Hashmi was earlier to run for the seat from the Punjab as the PML-N had, during its electoral deal with the MMA in the general election, promised to vote for him.

But the PML-N could not win as many seats in the elections as was expected and because its electoral cooperation with the MMA could not last in the bypolls, Mr Hashmi had to withdraw and hope for his nomination from Balochistan or NWFP where the MMA enjoyed a comfortable majority.

Meanwhile, JUI-F leaders say they will put up a case in the meeting against the Jamaat-i-Islami for its leaders ‘blackmailing’ in the NWFP.