PPP seeks MQM's help for Gilani's Senate vote.

KARACHI -- The Pakistan Peoples Party on Saturday sought the support of rival Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan for former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on an Islamabad Senate seat and offered the latter that the PPP was ready to withdraw its two nominees in favour of the MQM-P's candidates.

The MQM-P, which is a coalition partner of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf at the centre and contesting Senate election in Sindh along with it and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), has not responded to the PPP offer saying the matter would be decided in a meeting of the party's coordination committee.

A close contest is expected between Mr Gilani and Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh of the ruling PTI and both the parties had approached the MQM-P for its seven votes in the National Assembly.

A delegation of PPP's provincial set-up led by Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah and comprising Murtaza Wahab, Waqar Mehdi, Sharjeel Memon and others arrived at the MQM-P's temporary headquarters in Bahadurabad.

Ready to withdraw two nominees in favour of the MQM-P's candidates

Talking to reporters after holding a meeting, Mr Shah said that they came to the MQM headquarters on the directives of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and held discussion with regard to the Senate election.

'We will support the MQM if it supports us in the Senate,' he said, adding that the PPP was ready to withdraw its two candidates against as many MQM-P nominees in Sindh in return for its help for Mr Gilani's Islamabad Senate seat.

He said that the MQM-P...

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