KARACHI: With senate elections approaching, uncertainty prevails with regard to the exact number of votes required for winning a general seat and a reserved seat from Sindh, it emerged on Wednesday.

The confusion is because of a mystery as to whether or not Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani has sent the resignations of four Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmakers to the Election Commission of Pakistan for a formal notification.

Mr Durrani told the Sindh Assembly recently that he had accepted the resignations of the four PTI lawmakers — Hafeezuddin, Khurram Sher Zaman, Samar Ali Khan and Dr Seema Zia — and sent them to the ECP. However, till date neither any notification was issued nor any ECP official was willing to talk about it.

There are total 11 senate seats — seven general and two each reserved for technocrats/ulema and women — from Sindh.

In the 168-member house, 20.88 votes are needed to win a general seat from Sindh. And the number of votes for winning a reserved seat is 55.67.

But, if the resignations of the PTI lawmakers have been accepted, the strength of the Sindh Assembly would be 163. This mean, the number of votes for winning a general or reserved seat is reduced to 20.38 and 54.34, respectively.

In the 168-member house, the PPP has 91 seats; MQM 51, PML-F 11, PML-N eight, PTI four and NPP has two legislators.

In the Senate polls held in 2012, all 11 candidates from Sindh were elected unopposed due to an understanding between the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, as both parties had a coalition government in the province.

Of the 11 retiring senators, eight belonged to the PPP and three associated with the MQM.

However, this time round, it would be difficult for the PPP to retain eight seats because of the fact that the MQM is in the opposition and other smaller parties in the house are also keeping distance from it.

The PPP could easily win four general and two reserved seats on its own.

According to a rough estimate, if joint opposition contests the senate elections, the MQM, which can easily win two general seats on its own, could win three general and one reserved seat, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, being the second largest opposition party, could also win one candidate.

Both the PPP and the MQM are trying to lure other opposition parties to get one extra seat.

PPP’s Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, Rehman Malik and Syed Murad Ali Shah and MQM’s Dr Farooq Sattar and Babar Ghauri have reportedly initiated contacts with other parliamentary groups.

Sources close to PML-F said that Mr Shah had last night met PML-F leader Pir Sadruddin Shah at his residence and conveyed a message of goodwill from PPP’s all-powerful Faryal Talpur.

It is also learnt that an MQM delegation led by Mr Ghauri also called on PML-F chief Pir Pagara and Pir Sadruddin.

Earlier in the day, former interior minister Malik paid a visit to the Sindh Assembly where he met MQM’s parliamentary party leaders Syed Sardar Ahmad and Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan.

Analysts believed that Mr Malik, who is also aspiring for a senate ticket from the PPP, had brought some message from the PPP chief to assess the mood of the MQM in the wake of recent tensions over “extrajudicial killings” of MQM workers and unsavoury remarks passed by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari against MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

When Dawn asked Shaharyar Mahar, the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, whether there was any move by the PML-F, PML-N and NPP, he said: “Our all efforts are to contest senate elections from a united platform.”

The PPP parliamentary board is scheduled to meet on Feb 6 to interview aspirant candidates, while the meeting of the PML-F is scheduled to be held on Feb 9 to finalise their strategy for having an electoral alliance.

The nomination papers would be received by the ECP from Feb 12 to 13, followed by their scrutiny on Feb 16 and 17. The final list of candidates would be issued on Feb 25.

The PPP is likely to award party tickets to Sherry Rehman, Farooq Naek, Rehman Malik, Saleem Mandviwala while the MQM may repeat Mr Gahuri.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2015

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