MMA component parties’ provincial heads clear most of ticket issues

By Bureau report
June 12, 2018

PESHAWAR: The provincial heads of the component parties of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in their marathon meeting which concluded here Monday managed to clear majority of the tickets for the national and provincial assemblies.

However, over a dozen disputed cases could not be resolved and they were referred to the Central Parliamentary Board of the five-party alliance for a final decision. In Peshawar, all the tickets for the five national and 14 provincial assembly seats were approved.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl was given three national and eight provincial assembly tickets, while JI could get two national and six provincial assembly tickets.

In Mardan, the dispute on PK-54 persisted as both the JI and JUI-F refused to budge. The JI wants the ticket for Fazle Rabbani Advocate, who had won the seat in 2002 election and remained a provincial minister. The JUI-F wants the ticket apparently for Shahid Khan. But actually, they want to make the adjustment over it with PML-N’s Jamshed Khan Mohmand. The JUI-F wants to support Jamshed Khan for the provincial assembly seat in return for getting his support for Maulana Mohammad Qasim for the National Assembly.

The dispute over PK 20 Buner 1 also remained unresolved. The JI wants to win the ticket for the former speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Bakht Jahan Khan, while JUI-F seeks it for former member provincial assembly Maulana Fazle Ghafoor.

Similarly, disputes could not be resolved over some seats in Karak and Dera Ismail Khan districts. The ticket for NA 8 Malakand was awarded to provincial head of MMA and JUI-F Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan. All the tickets in the two districts of Dir were given to JI candidates, whose names had already been announced.

The matter of Pk-54 Mardan VII was also resolved with JUP’s Qari Mohammad Fayyaz withdrawing his claim leaving the ticket for JI’s Mian Nadir Shah.

The wife of Qari Fayyaz was, however, recommended for the reserved seat. Mir Alam of JUP was given a ticket for provincial assembly from Nowshera.