The Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) is all set to field 24 candidates for the upcoming Senate election, as the party parliamentary board on Tuesday short listed 31 candidates of a total 537 applicants after interviews and analysis by board members. The list would be presented to President Asif Ali Zardari for a final approval and he would finalise a list of 24 candidates, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
The source said four candidates had been short listed for two seats of the federal capital, eight applicants had been chosen from Punjab, 10 candidates had been short listed from Sindh, four had been selected from Balochistan and five candidates had been chosen from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“From the federal capital, Raja Mansoor, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Maimoona Kazmi and Chaudhry Kamran have been selected, while from Punjab, Barrister Aitazaz Ahsan, Dr Babar Awan, Dr Akbar, Rana Aftab, Habibullah Shakir, Professor Ijazul Hasan, Malik Hakmin Khan and Shabina Riaz have been short listed,” the source said. The source added that Raza Rabbani, Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, Javed Shah Jilani, Salim Mandviwala, Rukhsana Zuberi, Sharmila Farooqui, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Quratul Ain Marri, and Waqar Mehdi had been selected from Sindh, while Pardeep Kumar had been chosen for minority seat.
“For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Farhatullah Babar, Pukhraj Babar – the spouse of late Nasirullah Khan Babar, Lal Mohammed Khan, Begum Tehmas Khan and Azam Khan Afridi have been selected. While Sabir Baloch, Iftikhar Khan Magsi, Munawwara Munir and Hina Gulzar have been shortlisted from Balochistan,” the source added. Faryal Talpur, younger sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, chaired all meetings held to interview the candidates, while she was assisted by PPP Secretary General Jahangir Badr, Rukhsana Bagash, Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah and Leader of the House in Senate Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari.