ISLAMABAD, Feb 11: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) leadership on Saturday issued party tickets for the forthcoming Senate polls to three candidates from Islamabad, a PPP spokesman Nazir Dhoki told Dawn.

Those who have been awarded the PPP tickets to contest the election for Senate from Islamabad include B.A. Malik on general seat and Chaudhry Mazhar on technocrat seat. Another party activist Sheikh Nisar has been asked to submit his nomination papers on a technocrat seat as a covering candidate.

The Senate election on one technocrat and one general seat from Islamabad are scheduled to be held on March 4. These seats will fall vacant with the retirement of Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad and Prof Ghafoor Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) on March 11 as a result of January 2 draw.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) has again awarded ticket to Wasim Sajjad on the technocrat seat while on the general seat, the ticket has been issued to Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis Tariq Azeem Khan.

Keeping in view the numerical strengths of the political parties in the National Assembly, the PPP has no chance of winning any of the seats from Islamabad.

It may be mentioned that the PPP had already issued tickets to 13 candidates for the Senate poll from Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP, retaining five of its sitting senators.