KARACHI: The returning officer at the provincial election commission on Saturday scrutinised the nomination papers of 10 candidates of the Pakistan Peoples Party for coming Senate elections, declared them valid and accepted, officials said.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah led the PPP candidates for the Senate election on general seats to the provincial election commission office for scrutiny of their nomination papers.

His predecessor Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, also a PPP candidate, were also accompanying CM Shah.

The chief minister had proposed Maula Bakhsh Chandio for a general seat while his predecessor had proposed Mr Rabbani.

The returning officer declared the nomination papers filed by Raza Rabbani, Maula Bakhsh Chandio, Murtaza Wahab, Imamuddin Shauqeen, Ayaz Mahar, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Dost Ali Jaiser, Mohammed Ali Shah Jamote, Javed Nayab Leghari and Qasim Siraj Soomro valid.

The party will finalise their candidates on the day of withdrawal, a PPP leader said.

Later, speaking to the media outside the election commission’s office, Syed Murad Ali Shah said he was not happy with the “disintegration and grouping” in the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

“Whatever is going on there [MQM], our party [PPP] has nothing to do with it,” he said.

“Although this is their internal issue, the PPP is not happy with all what is going on,” he said and added that “we had showed our satisfaction when the MQM and the PSP leaderships had joined hands in the recent past”.

He disagreed with a questioner that the provincial lawmakers were being offered money for voting in Senate.

“This propaganda is being fabricated by those who cannot see PPP’s historic success in the Senate election,” he said adding that “media should avoid levelling such baseless allegations against elected representatives of the people”.

Mr Shah said the PPP was not going to take benefit of the MQM’s internal crisis.

“We are hopeful that all our 12 candidates would return in Senate election because MPAs in Sindh Assembly believe that the PPP is the only party which serves people irrespective of any consideration,” he said.

Replying to a question about the National Accountability Bureau, the CM said the NAB authorities had closed Rohri Canal because of an inquiry without considering that it would dearly affect the standing crops.

“Their decision to close Rohri Canal has caused huge financial loss to the growers cultivating crops in the command area,” he said.

He claimed that NAB had always dealt with Sindh differently.

“I have reservations on their approach and attitude towards Sindh,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2018