ISLAMABAD The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party is all set to emerge as the single largest party in the Upper House with the completion of the crucial process of Senate elections today (Wednesday).

All the candidates from Sindh and Punjab (11 from each province), seven general seats from NWFP and one general seat from Islamabad have already been elected un-opposed as a result of a political understanding reached between various political parties.
 
Secretary Election Commission Kanwar Dilshad told Dawn that the elections will now be held only on 19 seats including 11 seats in Balochistan, four seats of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATAs) and two seats each reserved for women and ulema and technocrats respectively.
 
The Secretary Election Commission said the National Assembly will meet today (Wednesday) at 9 am with the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq in the chair to elect four Senators from FATA. He said only the senators from FATA will cast their votes in the process. He said the provincial election commissioners will preside sessions of the NWFP and Balochistan assemblies. He said election on one National Assembly seat from FATA is yet to be held and thus the number of voters will be eleven.
 
He said 27 candidates were in the run for 11 seats from Balochistan while 34 candidates were in the arena for four FATA seats. He said four candidates were contesting for two seats reserved for women in the NWFP Assembly while the same number of candidates was in the run for the name number of reserved seats for ulema and technocrats from the Assembly.
 
Though the PPP is still the major beneficiary of the Senate polls, analysts say the results of the elections on seats in Balochistan and FATA still remain a mystery because of the unchecked tendency of horse-trading and vote selling in these areas. They however observed that majority of them would be inclined to strike a deal with the ruling party. 
 
He said polling would start at 9 am and continue till 4 pm and result would be announced there and then soon after the counting completes.

As many as 50 Senators will be retiring on March 11 and those elected in these elections would replace them. The new entrants will complete their term of six years.

List of Candidates

The candidates for seven general seats from Balochistan include
Mir Muhammad Ali (BNP-A), Khudai Dad Khan (ANP), Malik Muhammad Yar Khan (ANP), Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani (IND), Sheikh Zahid Jan (IND),Izhar Khan Khosa (IND), Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran (IND), Nawabzada Muhammad Akbar Magsi (IND), Mir Shahiq Khan Domki (IND), Haider Khan Nasir (IND), Mir Wali Muhammad Badini (IND), Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani (JUI-F), Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor (JUI-F), Mir Changez Khan Jamali (IND), Muhammad Asadullah Khan (IND), Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo (NP), Nawabzada Mir Haji Lashkari Raisani (PPPP), Sabir Ali Baloch (PPPP), Aurangzeb Alamgir Magsi (PPPP), Sardar Tahir Hussain Khan Advocate (PPPP), Haji Abdullah Musazai (PPPP), Muhammad Usman Badini (IND) and Naseebullah Achakzai (PML-Q).

For two seats reserved for women in Balochistan, the candidates include
Rehana Javed (ANP), Farida Kakar (ANP), Kalsoom Perveen (PML), Bibi Salma (JUI-F), Agha Pari Gul Syeda (PML), Roshan Khursheed Bharocha (PML), Farah Shah (IND), Salma Saeed (IND), Suriya Amiruddin (PPPP), Hinna (PPPP), Samina (BNP-A) and Kauser Naheed (IND).

For two seats reserved for ulema/technocrats for the province, the contesting candidates include
 Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri (JUI-F), Muhammad Hamayun Khan (IND), Saeed Ahmed (BNP), Noor Jahan Panezai (PML), Mian Saifullah Paracha (PPPP), Malik Mumtaz Hussain Mahfooz Advocate (PPPP) and Engineer Basant Lal Gulshan (IND).

From NWFP, four candidates including Farah Aqil (ANP), Farhat Abbas (PPPP), Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli (PPP-S) and Shahida Begum (JUI-F) are in the run for two seats reserved for women with five candidates Ali Gohar Khan (IND), Iqbal Zafar Jhagra (PML-N), Abdul Jamil Khan (IND), Afrasiab Khattak (ANP) and Syed Sardar Hussain.

From FATA 34 candidates, who had filed nomination papers, are in the run for four FATA seats, including
Eng. Malik Rashid Ahmed Khan, Bismillah Khan, Prof. ® Abdul Ghaffar Khan Ghafoor, Haji Khan, Haji Gul Afridi, Halib-ur-Rehamn, Habib Malik Orakzai, Dr Syed Javed Hassain, Dr. Abdul Qadir, Dr. Muhammad Iftikhar Zafar, Syed Fazal Abbas Mian, Syed Muhammad Jawad, Syed Muhammad Hussain, Shah Jee Gul, Shoaib Hassan, Sahibzada Abdul Salam Sherani, Zafar Khan Afridi, Abbas Khan, Abdul Malik Qadri, Abdul Wadood, Irfanullah, Ghulam Haider Wazir, Ghulam Muhammad Sadiq, Fakhar-uz-Zaman Khan, Farhad Shabab Afridi, Qismat Khan Wazir, Laiq Hussain Turi, Muhammad Ihsan Ullah, Muhammad Idrees Khan Safi, Muhammad Soaib, Moulana Shamas-ur-Rehman, Nasir Khan, Nawabzada Muhammad Shah and Hidayatullah.