Malik, Naek, Badr get Senate tickets

ISLAMABAD " Pakistan People's Party has awarded tickets to some twenty-seven candidates from all the four provinces and the federal capital on general, technocrats and women seats for the upcoming Senate elections due on coming March 4. In this connection, a formal announcement has been made by the party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Karachi, and according to party sources the last minute changes in the final list were made to accommodate some of the party loyalists in the final list. According to the party sources, the candidates were awarded tickets in the light of the recommendations made by the parliamentary board of the party headed by Makhdoom Amin Fahim. The board after scrutinizing and short-listing over 300 applications empowered the party co-chairman to have a final say in the allocation of the party tickets among the recommended candidates. Following is the list of the party candidates for Senate elections from the four provinces and the federal capital. From the Federal Capital Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and Dr Saeeda Iqbal have been awarded party tickets against general and woman seats respectively. Sindh: Gul Mohammad Lot, Islamuddin Sheikh, Maula Bux Chandio, Dr Khatumal Jeewan and Syed Faisal Raza Abidi were awarded party tickets against the general seats while on the two technocrat seats Farooq H Naek and Rehman A Malik have been awarded the tickets. Against the two women seats Almas Parveen has been awarded party ticket making the total number of candidates from the province to 8 against a total of 11. The rest of the three seats would likely be bagged by MQM the coalition partner of PPP both at province and at centre. NWFP: Gulzar Ahmed Khan, Waqar Ahmed Khan and Sardar Ali Khan have been awarded tickets against the general seats. Against two seats of technocrats Adnan Khan has been awarded ticket while against women seats Farhat Abbas has been awarded ticket making the total tally of ticket recipient to 5. In the NWFP out of the rest of the six seats, five would go to ANP, the key coalition partner of PPP, while one seat would go to JUI-F. Punjab: Jehangir Badr and Salahuddhin Dogar have been awarded tickets against general seats while Kazim Khan and Miss Sughra Imam were awarded tickets against technocrat and women seats respectively. In Punjab Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz PML-N would likely bag some six seats while a single seat would go to PML-Q. Balochistan: Nawabzada Laskhari Raisani, Aurangzeb Alamgir, Sabir Baloch, Abdullah Moosazai and Sardar Tahir advocate are the recipients of tickets against the general seats while Hina Gulzar and Suraya Ameenuddin were have been awarded party tickets against women seats. Against two technocrats seats Saifullah Paracha has been awarded party ticket. The sources in the party said that the candidates who had secured party tickets included the veteran party leaders and some new comers who had little affiliation with the party. Some of the senior party leaders who have been dropped from the final list are showing resentment in their private meetings about what they termed the intruders who had managed to secure the party ticket for the elections of the Upper House due on March 4. The dropouts include persons like Sultan Mahmood Qazi, Farahatullah Babar, Aga Riazul Islam, Zamurad Khan Advocate and a number of others who had decade-old affiliation with the party and matchless record of sacrifices and their loyalty with the party is considered above suspicion. Some of the party leaders who were dropped out of the list of successful candidates on condition of anonymity question the candidature of Gulzar Ahmad Khan and Waqar Ahmad Khan against the general seats in the NWFP. They have been given party tickets ignoring some of the PPP stalwarts, the party leaders claimed. These leaders said that in the previous elections both these candidates had contested the elections of the Upper House from the platform of PML-Q. The sources in the party informed TheNation that earlier all the three advisers to PM Shaukat Tarin, Dr Asim and Rehman Malik were among the top names in the list of the candidates but at the eleventh hour the names of Shaukat Tarin and Dr Asim were dropped out while Rehman Malik managed to remain in the list. Similarly, a couple of other last-minute changes have been made in the final list of the candidates rewarded with the surefire party ticket to become the member of the Upper House.