LAHORE, Feb 10: The PML-N will hold what seems to be an informal consultative meeting here on Wednesday (today) to finalise its strategy and nominees for the forthcoming Senate elections as party |chief Nawaz Sharif is returning home from London for the purpose early in the morning.

Polling for 50 seats of the 100-member strong upper house of parliament is scheduled to be held on March 4 and candidatures can be filed by Feb 13. Each province will elect 11 senators, seven on general seats and two each seats reserved for women and technocrats.

Notwithstanding differences in political ideologies, the PML-N is making efforts to strike electoral adjustments with other parliamentary parties for securing a maximum from the polls.

In Punjab, the party has 171 members and can easily secure three general seats as 53 votes are required for each slot. With the help of the PML-Q forward bloc as well as members of the PML-F and the MMA, it is making efforts to bag the fourth one, too.It had won support of 202 members from the house for its candidate Justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui (retired) in the presidential elections held last September.

The candidates for each seat reserved for general and women in the federal capital will be required to obtain 171 votes in the

342-strong National Assembly to return as winners. Electoral adjustments for the two seats will be a must as even the ruling PPP does not enjoy a clear majority in the lower house of parliament.

In today’s meeting, Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan will present his report about contacts he had made with other parties in this connection.

In the NWFP, the party is exploring the possibilities of adjustments with the Sherpao group of the PPP, PML-Q and 11 independent MPAs.

Outgoing senator from NWFP and PML-N central general-secretary Iqbal Zafar Jhaggra will take Sharif into confidence about the possibilities of securing any upper house seat from the province where at least 16 votes are needed to win each slot.

Talking to Dawn on Tuesday, Jhagra said the PML-Q and other opposition parties in the province could be offered support in the election for two each seats reserved for women and technocrats.

The PML-N has nine MPAs, the PML-Q six and the PPP-Sherpao three as two of the latter’s members have already changed loyalties to join the ruling coalition in the province.

As the party has no representation in Sindh and Balochistan assemblies, so its role in the Senate polls for the two provinces is not figuring on the agenda of the meeting.

To a question, Jhaggra hoped that the party leadership would prefer his election from a secure seat in Punjab if it ever decided to award ticket to anyone from outside the province.