Breakthrough deal in KP: Ruling party to get 6 Senate seats, opposition 5

PESHAWAR: Following secret contacts, meetings and consultative sessions between the government and opposition parties regarding Senate elections from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the possibility of uncontested elections has brightened after the nomination of candidates.

For the 11 seats of the upper house, the ruling party has issued tickets to 6 candidates and the opposition to 5 candidates, as a result of which all candidates have unofficially become successful. All other candidates will withdraw. Under the joint formula for distribution of seats, the government will get 4 general, one technocrat and one women’s seat, while the opposition alliance will get 3 general, one technocrat and one women’s seat.

Opposition leader Dr Ibad says that the agreement on distribution of seats has been reached. All issues have been resolved.

The 11 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the upper house have been vacant for the last 17 months. After the Supreme Court’s decision on June 27 regarding distribution of reserved seats, the Election Commission has also issued the schedule for Senate elections.

According to the schedule, polling for the election of new senators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be held on July 21 in the provincial assembly, for which arrangements are in the final stages. Sources say that PTI government and opposition parties have agreed on distribution of upper house seats and the proposal of uncontested elections. In this regard, after contacts between the government and opposition parties, several rounds of negotiations took place in secret meetings, in which matters of uncontested election of all candidates were finalised and tickets were issued to candidates.

Under the joint formula for distribution of seats, the ruling party has finalised 6 candidates for a total of 11 seats, which include former federal minister Murad Saeed, former senator Faisal Javed, former deputy chairman Senate Mirza Khan Afridi and former federal minister Pir Noor-ul-Haq Qadri for general seats. On technocrat seat, former federal minister Azam Khan Swati and on women’s seat Rubina Naz will be candidates. Among the 5 seats of the opposition parties’ quota, JUIF’s Maulana Ata-ul-Haq Darwish, PMLN’s Niaz Muhammad and PPP’s Talha Mahmood will succeed on general seats. Similarly, JUIF candidate Dilawar Khan on technocrat seat and PPP’s Rubina Khalid on women’s seat are certain to win.