KAR ACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party`s Syed Murad Ali Shah and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman on Thursday filed their nomination papers to contest the Friday election for the slot of Sindh chief minister.

PPP lawmakers Dr Sikandar Mandhro and Jam Mehtab Dahar also filed their nomination papers as covering candidates. They, however, withdrew their nominations after Murad Ali Shah`s papers were declared cleared.

In the backdrop of the party`s policy to further relatively young leadership on the key positions in the party ranks and the government, the chief ministerdesignate sought the backing of the old guards for his future rule from the outset.

Whenhereached theSindhAssembly building driving his expensive car by himself, he had Nisar Ahmed Khuhroon the nex t seat with nomination papers in his pocket in which he was proposed by the outgoing chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and seconded by Mr Khuhro.

Murad Shah came directly to the assembly building from CM House where he had held a meeting with Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Mr Khuhro and got his papers signed along with his predecessor`s `blessings`, said party members close to the proceedings.

Asked whether he would be elected unopposed, Murad Shah briefly said, `We hope so` before adding that so far no contact had been made with the PTI candidate to convince him to withdrawal from the contest.

The PTI candidate was the only member from the opposition benches who filed his nomination for the top administrative post in the province.

His papers were proposed and seconded by other two PTI lawmakers Samar Ali Khan and Seema Zia. PTI MNA Arif Alvi was also seen when its candidate filed the papers.

The tiniest group in the Sindh Assembly refused to let the election go as a one-sided affair, while relatively bigger groups such as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) andthe PML-Functional with nine and 10 members did not show up. None of their lawmakers explained whether it reflected their support to the PPP candidate or an absentia ofsorts.

The largest opposition party in the assembly, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, did not collect nomination papers either during the scheduled time. Its leaders came to the waiting media and announced that they had decided to abstain during the election `in protest` against bad governance.

While speaking to the media on the assembly building premises, MQM parllamentary leader Syed Sardar Ahmed said: `We have decided not be a part of the electoral process. That`s why we`ve refrained from fielding our candidate for the Sindh chief minister. The party will neither support any party nor stand against any other party.

He said the MQM believed in participatory democracy that was not seen in the picture.

Khwaja Izharul Hasan, the opposition leader in the house, called the change of the chief minister in Sindh a `drama` and added that his party would abstain in protest against it. He said change of faces could not promise prosperous future for the people of Sindh.He said Murad Ali Shah was not even a new face but was part and parcel of the bad governance in the province.

`We are protesting against the waste and destruction of resources by the PPP that everyone has been seeing for the past eight years and that may continue for two more years.

Number game In the house of 168 members, the PPP has a simple majority with 91 lawmakers, followed by MQM with 511egislators, PML-F with 10 lawmakers and PML-N with nine members. The PTPs strength is the least with three lawmakers.

The issue of resignations given by PTPs Syed Hafizuddin and MQM`s Bilgees Mukhtar and Mohammad Dilawar, who have joined former Karachi mayor, Syed Mustafa Kamal`s Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), hangs in the balance.

The by-election on the seat vacated by Ashfaq Mangi, who also defected to the PSP, is still awaited.

Some MQM members are still abroad while former minister Rauf Siddiqui has been under detention. Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani said he had writtento the home ministry for the production of Mr Siddiqui on Friday so that he could take part in the election process.

Former PPP minister Sharjeel Memon and two other members are abroad, while rumours about theabsence of two influential members of the party is on the rife. Hasnain Mirza, son of the party`s rebel leader Zulfikar Mirza, is believed to be either not supporting the party candidate or abstaining from the house.