KARACHI: 15 in fray as 12 quit race for 11 Senate seats
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Feb 21: A total of 12 candidates withdrew from the March 6 election for the 11 Senate seats from Sindh, leaving 15 candidates in the fray. Tuesday was the last day for the withdrawal of candidature, although any other candidate who wants to quit the race may do so until 24 hours ahead of the polling day.
Out of the 11 seats falling vacant on March 11, on completion of the occupants’ three year term, seven are in ‘general’ category and two each are in ‘technocrat’ and ‘women’ categories.
The candidates who have withdrawn their nomination are:
General seats: Dr Ashok Kumar Parwani, Abdul Saeed Qureshi, Mir Murtaza Talpur, Haleem Adil Shaikh, Abdul Lateef Ansari and Haji Muzaffar Ali Shujra.
Technocrat seats: Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro and Dr Karim Ahmad Khwaja.
Women seats: Mrs Abida Saif, Mrs Nighat Mirza Hina and Mrs Farzana Hanif.
The Provincial Election Commissioner Chaudhry Qamar-uz-Zaman told Dawn that the chief election commissioner had on Tuesday extended the withdrawal time from 3pm to 5pm to facilitate the process.
With the withdrawal of 12 candidates, eight candidates for general seats, three for technocrat seats and four for women seats would contest the election.
According to the final list of candidates, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement has fielded Mr Ahmad Ali and Col (r) Tahir Hussain Mashhadi for two of the general seats, Prof Abdul Khaliq Pirzada for one the technocrat seats, and Mrs Sabira Khatoon on one of the women seats.
The Pakistan People’s Party candidates are Mian Raza Rabbani and Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi on general seats, Javed Leghari on a technocrat seat and Ms Ratna Chawla on a women seat.
The Pakistan Muslim League has fielded Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi and Kishanchand Parwani on general seats, Syed Mehmood Hashmi on a technocrat seat and Ms Seemeen Siddiqui and Ms Leela alias Kalpna on women seats.
The PML-F has fielded Justice (r) Abdul Razzaq Thaheem against one of the general seats. He enjoys the ruling PML’s support.
Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro is the lone candidate from the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. He is vying for a general seat.
The electoral college for the election of Senate seats from Sindh comprises the total strength, i.e. 168 members, of the provincial assembly. According to the break-up, the ruling coalition has 101 members(MQM-42, PML factions and PPP Patriots 59), PPP has 58 members, MMA has eight members and the Mohajir Qaumi Movement has one member.
On the basis of the formula for getting through the general seat, at least 22 first preference votes are required, whereas a minimum of 57 votes are required to win a technocrat or women seat.
Every voter may cast 11 votes but in the order of preference as, in the final count, preference votes would determine the winners.
Leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, who came along with his colleagues to submit withdrawal letters of his party’s covering candidates on Tuesday, told Dawn that the opposition had an overall strength of 66 in the house and, in the light of the prescribed formula, the candidates — Mian Raza Rabbani, Dr Safdar Ali Abbasi of PPP and Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro of MMA — could easily secure the three general seats. Likewise, he said, the opposition would face no problems in securing the one women seat for Ratna Chawla and one technocrat seat for Dr Javed Leghari.
When asked to comment on the situation where the ruling coalition had not withdrawn its covering candidates, he said either the coalition could not evolve a consensus of component parties or it lacked confidence in its voter groups.
Mr Khuhro pointed out that there were only four extra candidates, one each in general and technocrat categories and two in women category. Had they quit the race, all other candidates would have returned unopposed, he added.
