PML awards tickets to 21 candidates for Senate poll
By Amir Wasim
ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) on Wednesday awarded its tickets to 21 candidates, including 11 new faces and close relatives of prominent party figures, for the forthcoming Senate elections.
The PML Parliamentary Board awarded the tickets, for candidates from Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, at a meeting at the Prime Minister’s House, party information secretary Tariq Azeem Khan said.
Mr Khan said the decision on party tickets to candidates from the NWFP would be taken in a day or two, for which consultations were going on.
Jamal Leghari, son of former president and present MNA Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari, and Haroon Akhtar, brother of Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan, are among seven ticket-holders for general and technocrats’ seats from Punjab. Mr Leghari will contest for a general seat while Mr Akhtar for a technocrat’s seat.
Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi, Minister of State for Sports and Culture Mohammad Ali Durrani and Naeem Hussain Chathha have been given party tickets again for the Senate election on general seats from Punjab. Former parliamentarian and senior politician Javed Ali Shah has been awarded the ticket for a general seat.
The PML leadership decided to retain veteran lawyer S.M. Zafar on a technocrat’s seat from Punjab.
The party awarded a ticket to Nilofar Bakhtiar, adviser to the prime minister on women development, on a seat reserved for women from Punjab, in place of Dr Nighat Agha. The ticket for another reserved women’s seat from the province has again been given to Senator Gulshan Saeed.
The board dropped the application of Minister of State for Interior Dr Shahzad Waseem to contest the Senate election again from Punjab. Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis Tariq Azeem Khan, who became Senator on a general seat from Punjab three years ago, was awarded ticket for a general seat from Islamabad. This seat will fall vacant after retirement of MMA Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, who had won in the last election with PML support.
Leader of the House Waseem Sajjad has been given the PML ticket for the only technocrat’s seat from Islamabad.
The PML has awarded tickets to Federal Minister for Local Government Abdul Razzaq Thaheem, Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi and Krishan Chand Parwani for general seats from Sindh. Simin Siddiqi, Sindh PML president of women’s wing, has been given ticket for a woman’s seat from Sindh.
Sources told Dawn that Federal Minister for Privatization Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh had not applied for ticket as he was going abroad to take an important position in an international organization.
The sources said the party had not given ticket to any person for a technocrat’s seat from Sindh because of an understanding with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). The Muttahida had requested for this seat in return for its offer of one of the two women’s seats to the PML.
Those awarded PML tickets from Balochistan are former governor Syed Fazal Agha, Jam Mohammad Jamali and Israrullah Zehri on general seats, Saeed Hashmi for a technocrat’s seat. Rehana Yahya Baloch and Roshan Khurshid Barucha will contest for two women’s seats. Ayaz Khan Mandokhel and Mohammad Akram Khan have not been allowed to contest the election again.
PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain presided over the meeting attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, party secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Syed and the chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.
