February 11, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 12, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: The People’s Party Parliamentarians on Friday decided to award tickets to 13 candidates for the Senate elections scheduled to be held on March 6, sources told Dawn.

The sources said the party had retained five of its seven senators who would retire on March 11 as a result of a draw held on Jan 2.

Dr Abdullah Riar and Abdul Latif Ansari, both from Sindh, are the two senators, the sources said, who had not been awarded party tickets.

The decision was taken at a meeting presided over by PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim in Karachi.

Tickets for candidates from Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP were awarded.

The party is not planning to give a ticket to any candidate from Balochistan, from where it has no representation in the Senate.

The sources said Sajjad Hussain Bokhari and Dr Akbar Khawaja had again been given the party tickets for general seats from Punjab. The party’s finance secretary Dr Babar Awan has also been given the ticket on a Punjab general seat. Dr Khawaja was elected on a technocrat’s seat in the last election. A ticket for a technocrat’s seat from Punjab has been given to Dr Israr Shah.

For women’s seats, the PPP has awarded tickets to Sajida Mir and Nargis Awan.

However, the chances of the party to win technocrat’s or women’s seats from Punjab are slim.

The sources said former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar had again been awarded party ticket for a technocrat’s seat from the NWFP.

Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuro told Dawn that the party had awarded tickets for general seats from the province to Mian Raza Rabbani and Dr Safdar Abbasi. He said two covering candidates would also be asked to submit nomination papers for the general seats. Mr Khuro said Dr Javed Leghari had been given ticket for a technocrat’s seat and Ratna Bhagwandas Chawla for a women’s seat. He said Dr Karim Khan and Farzana Baloch would file papers as covering candidates.