All Senate candidates from Punjab seem set to be elected unopposed after political parties reached a mutual understanding on nominations without competition.
It is likely that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will field four candidates for the Senate from Punjab, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has fielded one candidate and PML-N will opt for seven candidates. Thus the seats of Senate in Punjab will be divided and PML-N gets seven, PPP gets four and PML-Q one. It is expected that small parties will have no mandate from Punjab after big parties divided Senate seats among themselves. There are 12 Senate seats for each province with seven general, two technocrat, two women and one minority seat. The four candidates of PPP include Babar Awan and Aslam Gill on general seats, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan on technocrat’s seat and Khalida Bosan of Muzaffargarh on womans seat. PPP has fielded no candidate on minority seat and PPP opted for seat adjustment with PML-Q, which has given ticket to Kamil Ali Agha. PML-N also announced seven nominees for senate tickets in upper house. The wife of Babar Awan will be covering candidate for Awan. Out of more than 200 candidates who applied for senate tickets, PML-N president Nawaz Sharif decided to field stalwarts leaving candidates of PML-Q likeminded and Unification bloc high and dry. Their candidates were interviewed but finally bereaved of any seats for upper house.
Amongst seven seats, four candidates including Sardar Zulfiqar Khan Khosa, Zafar Dhandla from Bhakkar, M Hamza from Toba Tek Singh and Rafique Rijwana on general seats will file their nomination papers. Ishaq Dar, close relative of Nawaz Sharif, will vie for technocrat seat. On the woman’s seat, Begum Nuzhat Amir Sadiq will contest. Provincial Minister for Finance and Human Rights Kamran Michael will submit his nomination paper on the minority seat. PML-N’s senior leader Ghulam Dastgeer Khan and former bureaucrat Saeed Mehdi will be covering candidates.
Parties like PML-Functional would have no representation from Punjab, as only one its candidate in Senate will retire and it will be unrepresented in the Senate. Similarly, PML-Q will loose 20 out of 21 its Senators while Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazal would loose seven out of 10 Senators.
