ISLAMABAD (APP): As many as around 100 candidates are in run for the upcoming Senate election from all four provinces and federal capital.
According to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), around 100 candidates submitted their nomination papers so far with Returning Officers (ROs) for contesting election on 48 vacant seats of Senate scheduled to be held on March 3.
Sharing the details, the ECP official said, 17 candidates have filed their nomination papers from Punjab, 22 from Sindh, 30 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 25 from Balochistan and six from Islamabad.
As many as 23 nomination papers have been submitted for Women seats while eight for Non-Muslim and 18 nomination papers have been submitted for Technocrats and Ulema seats besides 51 for General seats.
In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, nomination papers from Abbas Afridi, Shibli Faraz,Sania Nishtar, Farzana Javed, Shazia Tehmas Khan, Falk Naz, Hamidul Haq, Nasarullah Wazir, Farhatullah Babar, Zubair Ali, Rehan Alam, Dost Muhammad,, Ranjit Singh, Gurdeep Singh and Aarish Kumar have been received so far.
In Balochistan, Sarfaraz Bugti, Sitara Ayaz, Muhammad Abdul Qadir, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Khalilur Rehman Buledi, Muhammad Qasim, Israrullah Zehri, Abdul Khaliq Khan, Benish Sikandar, Atifa, Naseema Ihsan, Samina Mumtaz, Kashifa Kukui, Sania Khan, Kamran Murtaza, Naveed Jan Baloch, Sajjad Tareen, Syed Ahmed Hashmi, Hamen Das, Danish Kumar have submitted their nomination papers so far.
In Punjab, Kamil Ali Agha, Jamshid Iqbal Cheema, Muhammad Khan Madani, Mushahidullah Khan, Pervaiz Rasheed, Saiful Malook, Muhammad Azeemul Haq, Saifullah Niazi, Afnanullah Khan, Saud Majeed, Robina Akhtar, Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, Aon Abbas, Zirqa Suharwardi, Saeeda Abbasi, Azam Nazir Tarar and Syed Ali Zafar have submitted their nomination papers so far.
Similarly, in Sindh, nomination papers from Sadiq Ali Memon, Saleem Mandviwalla, Sherry Rehman, Dost Ali Jaiser, Jam Mehtab Dehar, Taj Haider, Shahadat Awan, Zafar Ahmed, Sohail Mansoor Khawaja, Abdul Qadir Khanzada, Palwasha Khan. Rukhsana Parveen, Khairunisa, Khalida Ateeb, Sabeen Ghuri, Farooq H Naek, Dr Kareem Khawaja have been received.
Meanwhile, in the federal capital, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, Fozia Arshad, Farzana, Furrukh Naz Akbar have submitted their nomination papers so far.
The polling will be held on March 3 on 48 seats, two in Islamabad, 11 each in Punjab and Sindh, and 12 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
A total of 52 senators in the House of 104 are set to retire on March 11 on completion of their six-year term. The number includes four of the eight senators from the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
As the seats representing FATA will not be filled due to the merger of the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in May 2018, the Senate strength will shrink to 100.
The legislators will also vote to elect seven members on general seats including two women and two technocrats in the four provinces. Besides, the election on one minority seat each in KP and Balochistan will also be conducted.
More than 65 per cent of the senators due to retire belong to the opposition parties.
