KARACHI: With the announcement of an election schedule for 52 senate seats on March 3, those political parties in the province which have presence in the Sindh Assembly have started to finalise their candidates for the 11 vacant seats from Sindh, it emerged on Tuesday.

Eight senators of the Pakistan Peoples Party — Moula Bakhsh Chandio, Gul Muhammad Lot, Salim Mandviwalla, Islamuddin Shaikh, Abdul Qayoom Soomro, Rehman Malik, Farooq Naek and Almas Perveen — and three senators of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement — Babar Ghauri, Abdul Haseeb Khan and Shirala Mallick — are due to retire on March 11 after completing their six-year term.

Of the 11 seats, there are seven general seats and two each reserved for technocrats/ulema and women.

In view of their parliamentary strength in the Sindh Assembly, the PPP and MQM are the only two parliamentary parties which could send their representatives to the upper house of parliament.

According to the website of the Sindh Assembly, the PPP has 91 members, the MQM has 51, the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional 11, PML-Nawaz eight, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf four and the National Peoples Party has two members in the 168-member house.

Sindh parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikander Mandhro said that the PPP had invited applications from candidates for the senate seats by Jan 27 to award them party tickets.

After receiving the applications, a PPP parliamentary board would be formed, which would finalise the candidates.

In the MQM, according to sources, the senate tickets would be awarded by MQM chief Altaf Hussain in the light of the recommendations of the MQM’s coordination committee.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2015

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