Nominations for Senate election: JUI-F, JI unable to nominate candidates from MMA platform

PESHAWAR: The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) have not been able to nominate joint candidates for the upcoming Senate election from the platform of the recently revived Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA).

The JUI-F has nominated four candidates for the Senate election while the JI has finalized the name of one nominee.

The provincial information secretary of JUI-F Abdul Jalil Jan said the party had nominated its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan and Muhammad Talha Mahmood as its candidates for Senate election on general seats. He added that Mohammad Yaqoob Sheikh has been nominated as the JUI-F candidate on technocrat seat and Naeema Kishwar Khan on reserved seat for women.

Muhammad Talha Mahmood, hailing from Hazara division, is presently serving as JUI-F senator on general category seat. Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, belonging to Lower Dir district, too has remained member of the Senate earlier. Naeema Kishwar, a resident of Gujjar Garhi village in Mardan, is the party’s Member National Assembly on a reserved seat for women. She has been one of the most active lawmaker in the parliament.

Meanwhile, JI deputy provincial chief Iqbal Khalil said his party had finalised the name of their Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief Mushtaq Ahmad Khan as its candidate on a general seat for Senate. He said that Mushtaq Ahmad would be the only party candidate in the Senate election.

The two religio-political parties, along with three smaller Islamic parties, recently revived the MMA, which had won the 2002 general election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and agreed to contest the upcoming general elections from its platform.

The office-bearers of the two parties denied holding any talks on nominating joint candidates from the MMA platform for the election of the upper house of parliament. However, they shared similar views about holding talks in the coming days to field joint candidates.

Iqbal Khalil said the JI would contact the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), its senior partner in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa coalition government, and other parties to develop consensus on the names of the candidates for the Senate elections.

He said talks would also be held with the JUI-F to field joint candidates from the platform of the MMA and secure maximum seats in the Senate election from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “We will consult all the parties which have representation in the provincial legislature. We are confident of forming alliance with someone,” he added.

Abdul Jalil Jan said that no talks were held between the two parties before nominating party candidates for Senate election. However, he said that the two parties had formed committees to hold talks to discuss the names of joint candidates for the upper house of parliament.

He said that JUI-F was trying to unite all the opposition parties in the provincial legislature to win maximum number of Senate seats in the election.

Abdul Jalil Jan said the JUI-F can withdraw its candidates if the party reached seat-adjustment agreement with the JI or other opposition parties.

However, he did not rule out the possibility of taking solo flight in the Senate election if the party failed to form alliance with other parties.

JUI-F previously had 16 members in the provincial assembly but the party’s strength was reduced to 15 after it expelled its lawmaker from Charsadda, Fazal Shakoor Khan from the party for establishing close contacts with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and arranging a public meeting for him at his hujra a few months ago. Fazal Shakoor is expected to formally join PTI and could be fielded as its candidate for a provincial seat in the July 2018 general election.

The JI has seven MPAs in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. It has three ministers in the cabinet.