KARACHI: As many as 34 candidates have been allowed to contest the April 2 Senate elections on 12 seats from Sindh after officials approved their nomination papers during scrutiny on Tuesday.

Thirty-five candidates belonging to the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed Sunni Ittehad Council and others had submitted their nomination papers before Sindh Election Commissioner Sharifullah, who is the returning officer, for 12 Senate seats — seven general, two each reserved for women and technocrats/ulema and one seat reserved for non-Muslims — from Sindh.

The officials said that 21 aspirants had filed papers for seven general seats, five for two technocrats/ulema seats, six for two women-reserved seats and three had applied for one seat reserved for minorities.

After securitising their nomination papers, the office of provincial election commissioner issued the list of qualified candidates that said that the papers of 34 candidates had been accepted.

Candidature of MQM-P’s Najeeb Haroon rejected; ‘independent’ candidate Vawda also in the run

However, the candidature of MQM-P’s Mohammad Najeeb Haroon, who had filed papers for a general seat, has been rejected.

Director-Elections Sajjad Khattak told Dawn that the nomination papers of Mr Haroon were rejected due to tax default and non-payment of a bank loan.

Those who are allowed to contest elections on general seats are: Mohammad Abu Bakar, Abdul Rauf Siddiqui, Shabbir Qaimkhani, Faisal Vawda, Amir Chishti, Humayun Sultan, Ashraf Jatoi, Syed Masroor Ahsan, Sarfaraz Rajpar, Nadeem Bhutto, Javed Ahmed Nayab, Dost Ali Jessar, Abdul Wahab, Ghanwer Khan Isran, Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamrah Aajiz, Ali Tahir, Mir Raja Khan Jakarani, Shahbaz Zaheer and Nighat Mirza.

On technocrats/ulema seats Zamir Hussain Ghumro, Sarmad Ali, Karim Ahmed Khawaja, Manzoor Bhutta and Abdul Wahab are in the run.

Qurat-ul-Ain Marri, Rubina Qaimkhani, Yasmin Dadabhoy, Musarrat Nazir Niazi, Sabina Perveen and Mehjabeen Riaz are vying for two women-reserved seats.

For one minority seat, nomination papers of Poonjo, Sadhumal Surendar Valasai and Bhagwandas have been accepted.

Polling for the 12 Senate seats from Sindh will be held on April 2 in the provincial assembly.

According to the schedule issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the last date for filing appeals against the decisions of the RO about acceptance/rejection of nomination papers is March 21; such appeals will be decided by an appellant tribunal, headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry of the Sindh High Court, by March 25.

The candidates will have the option to withdraw their papers by March 27.

No differences with MQM-P, says Vawda

Former PTI senator Faisal Vawda has also filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate.

Interestingly, his nomination form was proposed by MQM-P lawmaker Ali Khurshidi and seconded by another MQM-P MPA Adil Askari.

There are reports that many senior leaders in the party were unhappy over Mr Vawda’s independent status as they wanted him to officially join the party before contesting the Senate polls.

However, a day before MQM-P leader Rauf Siddiqui told reporters that his party had offered Mr Vawda to join and he prayed that he would become part of their party.

He had said that everyone would accept the decision of the party regarding Mr Vawda’s candidature for Senate.

On Tuesday, Mr Vawda told reporters at the office of the Election Commission that he had good relations with the MQM-P.

He said that he had difference with the MQM-London.

“No one can endanger country’s integrity just for the sake of a revolution,” he said, adding that he saw more legal problems for Imran Khan.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2024