KARACHI, Jan 7: The Pakistan Muslim League has nominated Syed Shahabuddin Shah as the party candidate for the Senate seat byelection, which is scheduled for Jan 10.

After this decision was made public by PML-Q Secretary General Saleem Saifullah Khan on Wednesday, it is learnt, that Maj (Retd) Mustijab Hasan and Mr Maqbool Ahmad Shaikh, nominee of rival group of Chief Minister Ali Mahar, submitted their withdrawal at the Election Commission.

The fourth candidate Mr Azeem Chaudhry, whose nomination papers were also filed by the CM group along with Syed Shahabuddin Shah, is likely to submit his withdrawal late Wednesday night.

Besides, the PML nominee, five candidates were left in the run. They are: Dr Muhammad Ali Brohi and Abrarul Haque of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement; Muhammad Hashim Siddiqui of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Abdul Karim Khwaja of the Pakistan Peoples' Party and Javed Jabbar of the National Alliance.

The seat has been vacant since the death of Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, who was also president of the MMA. Saleem Saifullah Khan, who arrived here on Wednesday reportedly with a specific message for the local PML leadership from the party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, was speaking at the press conference at the PML House.

He said that the PML had always taken decision with consensus among its coalition partners and for the Senate seat also the party was in touch with its other allies in the ruling coalition.

He advised the rebel ministers and their group to cooperate with the chief minister, who was performing commending job by taking along all allies in Sindh. Mr Saifullah said there was no truth in the reports fed by interested quarters about change of the cheif minister. He claimed that he personally knew Ali Mahar, whose services were commendable and in the right direction.

He said that PML chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was likely to arrive here the next week and all remaining matters would be resolved then. Mr Saifullah expressed satisfaction over the performance of PML Organizing Committee and said that differences within the PML Sindh could not be resolved earlier because of the preoccupation of PML chief with the Legal Framework Order followed by the Saarc summit.