ISLAMABAD/QUETTA: Just a day after the announcement of the Senate poll schedule, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) formed a nine-member parliamentary board to finalise candidates as it geared up to win maximum number of seats from Balochistan along with Sindh, whereas a meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with its president in the chair on Tuesday discussed its strategy for the election.

The PPP is said to be eyeing at least six Senate seats from Balochistan. The PML-N has set a target of three seats, according to PML-N information secretary Mushahid­ullah Khan who said their party meeting “condemned” the PPP for its role in the recent change of Sanaullah Zehri’s government in Balochistan.

PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari recently chaired a meeting at Sindh CM House as the newly elected Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo and his cabinet members called on Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Jan 25. The meeting was considered the beginning of active preparations for the upcoming Senate election.

On Tuesday, the PPP formed a nine-member parliamentary board comprising former president Asif Ali Zardari, party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Faryal Talpur, former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, former prime ministers Raja Pervez Ashraf and Yousaf Raza Gillani, party’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar, secretary general Nayyar Bukhari and former Senate deputy chairman Sabir Baloch.

PML-N condemns Zardari’s role in fall of Zehri’s govt, chalks out strategy for polls on March 3

The PPP had already invited applications from those aspiring to get the party ticket for the upcoming Senate elections and Tuesday was the last day for submission of the applications. Similarly, the PML-N had also invited applications from the aspiring candidates and the party had fixed February 3 as the last date for receiving the applications.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, Opposition Leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, PPP’s parliamentary leader Taj Haider and party’s spokesman and most vocal senator Farhatullah Babar are among those 18 members, out of 26 PPP senators, who will be retiring in March.

The other PPP senators who will retire after completion of their six-year term are Mohammad Yousaf, Sardar Fateh Hasni, Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi and Rozi Kakar from Balochistan; Osman Saifullah Khan (Islamabad); Ahmad Hassan, Saifullah Bangash and Rubina Khalid (KP); Khalida Perveen (Punjab); Murtaza Wahab, Dr Karim Khawaja, Mukhtiar Dhamra, Sehar Kamran and Hari Ram (Sindh).

Sources told Dawn that almost all the retiring senators from Sindh including Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani and Taj Haider submitted their applications to seek party ticket for the election. Other prominent PPP applicants are Humaira Alwani, Hina Dastagir, Rashid Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi, Nauman Sheikh, Moula Bux Chandio, Javed Nayab Leghari, Abdul Qayyum Soomro and Hari Ram.

To discuss the PML-N strategy for the upcoming Senate elections, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif also presided over a meeting of the senior party leaders.

PML-N’s information secretary Mushahidullah Khan, when contacted, said that in the meeting the party leaders “condemned” the PPP for its role in the Balochistan Assembly affairs and change of the government in the province. He said the party believed that PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari was directly involved in creating political instability in Balochistan in an effort to deprive the PML-N from getting Senate seats from the province.

Mr Khan, however, said the party was hopeful that it would win three seats from Balochistan. He said that a three-member committee comprising Abdul Qadir Baloch, Sardar Yaqub Nasir and Afzal Mandokhel had been constituted to monitor the election activities in the province and to ensure party’s victory.

Balochistan PPP president Haji Ali Madad Jattack while addressing a press conference in Quetta on Tuesday said his party would win maximum seats from the province in the Senate election. “PPP is expecting to win at least six seats in Senate’s elections”.

Mr Jattak said: “Our target is at least six seats of the Senate from Balochistan in the March election.”

Interestingly, the PPP has no representation in the Balochistan Assembly as none of the party’s candidate had won from any constituency in the province in the 2013 general elections. However, Yousaf Badini won a Senate seat from Balochistan and later joined the PPP. His late father, Wali Muhammad Badini, had also joined the PPP after being elected a member of the Senate.

At the press conference, three political workers of different parties — Najeebullah Jattak, Nazeer Kurd and Sharif Khan Khilji — announced to join the PPP.

Welcoming the political, Mr Jattak said that his party was preparing itself for the coming general elections with the support of the people of the province. “People of the province who were deprived of their due rights by pervious rulers know that the PPP is the only party which could bring real change in their lives,” Mr Jattak said, adding that under the leadership of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari the party would be successful in making government in the province after the 2018 general elections. He said a PPP government in the province would bring social-economic development and work for the education of the youth of the province. He said conspiracies were being hatching against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project. The PPP, he added, would make all out efforts for the success of this mega project.

For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PML-N information secretary said that a three-member team comprising Amir Muqam, Sardar Mehtab Ahmed and Abbas Afridi had been formed. As far as the elections in Punjab were concerned, he said, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had been given the responsibility to directly monitor the elections.

Mr Khan said that they had also finalised a plan of public meetings to be addressed by Mr Sharif within the next few weeks in different parts of the country.

He also said the three-member committee that had been formed by Mr Sharif to fix responsibility on the persons for creating a controversy over the Khatam-i-Nabawut issue through changes in the Elections Act had also met separately on Tuesday and decided to finalise its report within the next two to three days. Mr Khan, who is also a member of the committee, said that they would hand over the report to the party president and then it would be up to him to decide whether the report should be made public or not.

Of the 27 PML-N senators, nine are due to retire this year. The most prominent among those retiring from the PML-N is self-exiled former finance minister Ishaq Dar. Other prominent PML-N senators who will stand retired on March 11 are Nisar Muhammad Khan from KP; Saud Majeed, Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, M Hamza, Dr Asif Kirmani, Nuzhat Sadiq and Kamran Michael from Punjab.

The Senate comprises 104 members — 23 each from the four federating units, eight from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), and four from Islamabad. The 23 seats allocated to a province comprise 14 general seats, four reserved for women, four for technocrats and one for minority member.

The term of a senator is six years, but 50 per cent of the total members retire after every three years and elections are held for new senators. Elections to fill the seats allocated to each province are held in accordance with the “system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote”. The Fata senators are elected by the members of the National Assembly from the area whereas the four senators on the reserved seats from Islamabad are elected by the members of the National Assembly.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2018