ISLAMABAD: A total of 120 candidates have entered the race for the 48 seats in the upper chamber of parliament; polls are scheduled on April 2, and among them are prominent politicians from Khyber to Karachi.
There are 26 contenders vying for 12 Senate seats from Punjab, and 33 candidates vying for the same number of spots from Sindh.
In a similar vein, thirty candidates are vying for eleven Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa seats and thirty-six for the same number of Balochistani seats.
Four contenders are also vying for the two Islamabad seats.
For Punjab’s seven general Senate seats, there are seventeen candidates. They include Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister; Talal Chaudhry, Ahad Cheema, Pervaiz Rashid, Nasir Butt, and Musadik Malik from the PML-N; Omar Sarfaraz Cheema, Walid Iqbal, Dr. Shahzad Waseem, and Hamid Khan from the SIC-PTI; and Raja Nasir Abbas, the chairman of Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen.
Four candidates are running for Punjab’s technocrat seats: Mustafa Ramday, Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Muhammad Aurangzeb, the Finance Minister, and Musadik Malik.
For the province’s reserved seats for women, Bushra Anjum Butt, Anusha Rahman, and Faiza Ahmed’s candidacy papers were accepted.
In a similar vein, Khalil Tahir Sindhu and Asif Ashiq will compete for the Punjabi minority seat.
Irfan Saleem, Talha Mehmood, Dilawar Khan, Faisal Javed, Mirza Muhammad Afridi, Azhar Mashwani, Niaz Ahmed, Waqas Orkazai, Fazal Hanan, Asif Iqbal, Faizur Rehman, Khurram Zeeshan, Attaul Haq, Masoodur Rahman, Shafqat Ayaz, Asif Rafiq, Muhammad Naseem, Sajjad Hussain, Taj Muhammad Afridi, Ahmed Mustafa, and Fida Muhammad are among the candidates for the seven general seats from K-P.
Qazi Muhammad Anwar, Waqar Ahmed Qazi, Dr. Hammad Mehmood Cheema, Khalid Masood, Fazal Hanan, Dilawar Khan, Qaiser Khan, Noorul Haq Qadri, and Syed Irshad Hussain are among the contenders for the two technocrat positions from the province.
For the two Senate seats set up for women from K-P, Mehvish Ali Khan, Ayesha Bano, Rubina Naaz, Begum Tahira Bukhari, Rubina Khalid, Hamida Shahid, and Shazia will fight.
36 candidates are vying for the 11 seats in Balochistan, including the former caretaker premier Anwaarul Haq Kakar, Aimal Wali Khan of the ANP, Amanullah Kanrani, the former caretaker provincial minister, Kahuda Babar Baloch, Naseebullah Bazai, Maulana Abdul Wasey of the JUI-F, Sardar Umar Gorgage of the PPP, Jan Mohammad Buledi, Mir Changez Jamali, and Rahila Durrani.
The PPP’s Ashraf Jatoi, Masroor Ahsan, Kazim Shah, Sarfraz Rajar, Nadeem Bhutto, Javed Nayab Laghari, Dost Ali Jaisar, Ghanoor Khan Asran, and Aziz Dhamra are running for the seven general seats from Sindh. The MQM-P’s Muhammad Abubakar, Rauf Siddiqui, Shabbir Qaimkhani, Amir Chishti, Humayun Usman Rajput, Shehbaz Zaheer, and Nighat Mirza are running as independents, as well as Wahab Baloch, Barrister Tahir, and Raja Jakharani.
For the province’s lone technocrat seat, independents Wahab Baloch and Manzoor Bhatta will compete against PPP members Zameer Ghamro, Sarmad Ali, and Karim Khawaja.
Candidates for the Sindhi women’s reserved seats include Mahjabeen Riaz, Quratulain Marri, and Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani.
Bhagwan Das Bheel and Poonjo Bheel will fight for the province’s minority seat.
Four people from Islamabad are running for two Senate seats. Farzand Hussain Shah and Rana Mehmoodul Hasan will compete for the general seat.
Raja Ansar Mehmood and Ishaq Dar will compete for the position of technocrat.
