PDM decides to field tested political heavyweights for Senate Elections 2021

• Gillani, Naek, Sherry, Mandviwalla, Farhatullah among PPP nominees
• PML-N re-nominates Mushahidullah, Pervaiz Rashid; JUI-F finalizes 10 candidates including Rehman, Haideri

By Hamid Khan Wazir

ISLAMABAD: Keeping the tradition alive, the major political parties of the opposition alliance called Pakistan Democratic Movement (PMD) including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) have decided to field their tested political heavyweights for the upcoming Senate Elections 2021.

The opposition political parties re-nominated their top guns for the forthcoming Senate Polls instead of giving a chance to young candidates to give a tough time to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the Upper House of the Parliament because the majority of these veterans politicians couldn’t win in the general elections.

According to a statement issued on Friday by the Bilawal House, the PPP has issued tickets to 14 of its candidates including Sherry Rehman and Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla for the Senate Elections 2021.

The PPP has issued tickets to Taj Haider, Shahadat Awan, and Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar, apart from Mandviwalla and Rehman for Sindh’s general seats.

For the technocrat seat, tickets were issued to Farooq H. Naek, Karim Ahmed Khawaja, and Shahadat Awan, whereas for the women’s seat Palwasha Khan, Khairunisa Mughal, and Rukhsana Shah were nominated.

Also Read: Senate Elections to be held on March 3: ECP

In addition, PPP has issued tickets to Azeem-ul-Haq Minhas in Punjab and Senator Farhatullah Babar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the latter of whom was a joint candidate with the PDM.

Similarly, the PPP proposed former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani as its joint candidate with the PDM from Islamabad, the Bilawal House statement read.

Likewise, PML-N finalized its candidates for the Senate elections and decided to re-nominate former prime minister and party supremo Mian Muhammad Nawaz close confidants Mushahidullah Khan and Pervaiz Rashid.

The PML-N Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb also announced the names of the PML-N’s five candidates for the upcoming Senate Elections in a statement on Twitter. She said the local chapter of KP will later decide to nominate candidates for the Senate from the province.

Marriyum Aurangzeb further said that Azam Nazeer Tarar was awarded a Senate ticket from the party on the technocrat seat while Sadia Abbasi was selected for the women’s seat from the Punjab province.

Three candidates have been finalized on general seats from the Punjab province including Pervaiz Rashid, Mushahid Ullah Khan, and Sajid Mir.

Similarly, another major party of the opposition alliance JUI-F has also issued party tickets to 10 candidates for the upcoming Senate election.

According to the Party’s Spokesman Aslam Ghouri, on the general seats of Balochistan, the tickets were issued to Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Khalil Ahmed Buledi while Kamran Murtaza and Asiya Nasir would contest Senate elections for the technocrat and women’s seats respectively. Heman Das has been awarded the ticket for the minority seat.

On the general seat of KP, the tickets have been issued to Maulana Atta-ur-Rehman and Tariq Khattak while Zubair Ali and Naeema Kishwar have been issued tickets for the technical and women’s seats respectively. Ranjeet Singh would vie for the minority seat of the province.