KARACHI: Nominating eight contestants in the first post-Benazir Senate elections from Sindh proved to be no less then an acid test for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leadership, which they successfully passed by satisfying a vast majority of its cadres by their candidate selections.
The women’s wing, student’s wing, minority’s wing, study’s circle and elites were all given a chance to become lawmakers in the upper house of the bicameral parliament of Pakistan.
Almas Parveen, a diehard female member of PPP, led a rally from Lyari, a stronghold of PPP, to Bilawal House where she was given the candidature certificate by Provincial Minister and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah in the presence of Faryal Talpur, sister of President Asif Zardari.
“PPP respects its workers and considers them eligible to become Senators,” Shah proudly told the crowd, while they were chanting ‘Jeay Bhutto, Jeay Benazir’ slogans.
PPP also nominated PPP Karachi Chapter Chief Faisal Abedi as its candidate in the Senate elections. As a student, Abedi was a member of the People’s Student Federation; he is a senior PPP activist and is known for his close relations with President Asif Zardari. With his efforts, Abedi successfully regularised the services of PIA employees and also gave MQM a tough time in the February 2008 elections.
Of all the eight electoral candidates, People’s Study Circle Sindh Chapter Chief Mola Bux Chandio is the most known figure among the party cadres. Hyderabad-based Chandio is an author, orator and ideologue. He has compiled various books in Urdu and Sindhi and has preached the philosophy of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to PPP members and workers.
“The party is proud to have a person like Chandio whose unwavering support for the party has remained intact even during the worst of times that we have witnessed in our political life,” Habibuddin Junaidi, a senior Karachi-based comrade stated.
Farooq Naek, federal law minister and former defence lawyer for Benazir Bhutto, has also been nominated by the party as a candidate in the Senate elections. Naek is also from Karachi and although he was not a man of the PPP, the present leadership cannot be questioned about his nomination has BB herself had nominated him for Senator in the last elections.
The same is the case for Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik. Malik was the FIA Director General during the tenure of the BB-led government from 1993 to 1996; he also made efforts to bring PPP and the PML-N closer and arranged meetings between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
Tharparkar received two nominations as both Advisor to the Sindh Chief Minister Gul Mohammad Lot and former Hindu MNA Khattumal Jeewan were nominated as PPP candidates for the Senate elections.
Lot is the son of Ghulam Mohammad Memon; Gul Mohammad and his family witnessed the worst sort of victimisation during the tenure of former Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim and had to leave the country in Arbab’s tenure.
The nomination of Jeewan is a sign of including non-Muslims in the country’s political process.
Former Sukkur Mayor Islamuddin Shaikh is also a PPP candidate for the elections. In the past, Shaikh was a PML-F Senator but he joined PPP and now his son is the PPP MNA from Sukkur. Since Shaikh is on close terms with Pir Pagaro, the PPP leadership asked him to secure Pagaro’s support and he did. Nominating Shaikh may benefit PPP in its reconciliatory politics.
PPP Provincial Deputy Information Secretary Waqar Mehdi told Daily Times that the PPP’s candidates will file their nomination papers on Friday morning.
When compared to the nominations of the last Senate elections, all the nominated candidates are well known figures therefore analysts have stated that PPP leadership has made a mature decision in selecting its representation in the Senate.
Bilawal House Media Cell member Aijaz Durrani said that PPP workers are happy to see the nomination of die-hard members such as Chandio and Abedi.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment