LAHORE, Feb 11: The PPP on Saturday announced fielding of advocate Babar Awan, Sajida Mir and Israr Shah in the Senate polls for general, women and technocrats seats respectively.

The decision was taken at a parliamentary party meeting here.

Briefing reporters about the decision, provincial president Qasim Zia said the party had not yet decided to support PML-N candidate(s) in the polls as the matter would be settled at ARD level.

Naveed Chaudhry, Farzana Raja and Rana Aftab were also present on the occasion.

Mr Shah is reportedly contacting various PML-N leaders to seek their support in the polls. He is claiming that some PPP dissidents who had crossed floor to join the ruling PML had assured him their support as the government did not fulfil the promises made with them.

The parliamentary party also adopted four resolutions, reposing confidence in the leadership of chairperson Benazir Bhutto and opposing the “disinformation” campaign against her by the incumbent rulers.

It condemned publication of blasphemous cartoons by some Western papers, seeking apologies from the offenders and rejecting Islamabad’s protest on the issue as insufficient.

The meeting also expressed its concern at the Hangu incident and urged restraint by all parties.

It held the “sugar mafia” in the ranks of the government as responsible for the present price hike and demanded that it should expose these elements and provide relief to the masses.