ISLAMABAD: Over 50 per cent senators of the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) are set to retire in March as the party invites applications from the candidates willing to contest the upcoming Senate polls.

Senate Chairman Nayyar Hussain Bokhari and his deputy Sabir Ali Baloch are among those who will be retiring after completion of their six-year term in the upper house of the parliament this year.

The data obtained from the Senate Secretariat shows that 21, out of present 40 PPP members, are among those 52 senators who will stand retired on March 11.

The PPP, which is presently the single largest party in the 104-member upper house, is expected to lose its total strength in the new Senate, but political and parliamentary experts believe that the party would remain the largest opposition party and can even challenge the ruling PML-N in the elections for the offices of the chairman and the deputy chairman.

Since the Senate elections always depend on the party position in the four provincial assemblies and the National Assembly, the PPP is expected to retain almost all the seats from the Sindh province due to its majority in the provincial assembly.

However, the prospects of the party candidates in other provinces and in the federal capital are not very bright.

Among the 21 retiring PPP senators, eight are from Sindh, five from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three each from Punjab and Balochistan and two from Islamabad.

The data shows that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) and the Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A) would all see 50 pc of their senators retiring from the 104-member Senate.

Among the 52 senators retiring in March, eight are from the ruling PML-N, six from the ANP, three each from the MQM and the JUI-F, two from the BNP-A and one each from the PML-Q, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and the National Party (NP). There are six independent senators, including four from Fata, who will be saying good bye to the Senate this year.

Under the Constitution, half of the members of the Senate, which has equal representation from all the four provinces and representation from Federal Capital, Federally Administered Tribal Areas retire after every three years.

Secretary General of the PPP-Parliamentarians and former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has asked the candidates desirous to contest Senate elections to submit applications for the party tickets by January 30.

However, the candidates have been directed to send their applications in the name of PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim. The candidates, according to an official announcement, have been asked to submit a Rs50,000 bank draft in Mr Fahim’s name. The candidates are required to send their applications to the party’s Central Secretariat, located on Embassy Road in Islamabad.

In the last Senate elections, the PPP Secretariat had received more than 450 applications, despite the fact that only five of its senators were retiring in March 2012.

The new senators are required to take oath on March 12.

The PPP senators who are retiring in March are: Jahangir Badar, Kazim Khan and Sughra Imam from Punjab; Rehman Malik, Farooq Naek, Salim Mandviwala, Islamuddin Sheikh, Maula Bux Chandio, Abdul Qayyum Soomro, Gul Muhammad Lot and Almas Perveen from Sindh; Gulzar Ahmed Khan, Waqar Ahmed Khan, Sardar Ali Khan, Adnan Khan and Farhat Abbas from KP; Sabir Baloch, Mir Yousuf Badini and Surriya Amiruddin from Balochistan and Nayyar Bokhari and Dr Saeeda Iqbal from the federal capital.

The prominent retiring senators from other parties are PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain (PML-Q), Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq, Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal, Mushahidullah Khan, Pervez Rashid, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Prof Sajid Mir, Najma Hameed and Sardar Yaqoob Nasir (PML-N); Babar Ghouri and Abdul Haseeb Khan (MQM); Afrasiab Khattak, Abdul Nabi Bangash, Haji Adeel and Zahid Khan (ANP); Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Haji Ghulam Ali (JUI-F), Hasil Bizenjo (NP); Kalsoom Parveen (BNP-A) and Humayun Mandokhel and Abbas Khan Afridi.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2015

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