PTI to get 16 out of 22 reserved women seats in KP Assembly

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) would get 16 women reserved seats out of total 22 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

As per the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) unofficial results, 66 PTI candidates have won the election of the general seats of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Similarly, the PTI would also get seven out of nine National Assembly seats reserved for women from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. An official of the ECP told The News that the allocation of reserved seats to the political parties would take a few days as it could only be decided after the publication of names of winners in the official gazette and joining of independent candidates, if any, after three days of that publication.

Under the formula, he said, a party would get one reserved seat for 4.5 general seats and a minority seat on 37 general seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

The PTI had submitted 15 candidates' priority list for women reserved seats to the ECP. Nadia Sher is on top and Maliha Aftab has been placed second and Ayesha Naeem third in the priority list.

The other candidates are Dr Sumera Shams, Rabia Basri, Dr Asia Asad, Sajida Hanif, Somi Falak Naz, Ayesha Khushnood, Sitara Afreen, Zeenat Bibi, Asia Khattak, Maria Fatima and Nadia Ambreen Khattak.

Out of 15 candidates, the ECP declared 14 candidates qualified, whereas one of the candidates, Nadia Ambreen Khattak, whose name was at Serial No 15, had not filed nomination papers. Of the 14 candidates list, three would be elected MPAs for the second term including Nadia Sher, Maliha Aftab and Ayesha Naeem.

Similarly, the PTI two minorities' candidates including Ravi Kumar and Wazir Zada are to be elected as both were in the priority list for the KP Assembly. For the first time, Pakistan will welcome a Kalash into the provincial assembly on the PTI reserved minority seat.

Hailing from Chitral, the PTI member Wazir Zada has made history by being the first Kalash to represent his tribe in the provincial assembly. The community, known to be the country's smallest ethnoreligious group, is rejoicing at the historic change.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) would also get two MPAs on women reserved seats including Rehana Ismail and Humaira Khatoon in the KP Assembly. According to ECP unofficial results, the MMA got 10 seats in the KP Assembly. Similarly, ANP got six seats, PML-N five and PPPP four seats in the KP Assembly. Six candidates are elected in an independent capacity.

The other parties including PPP, ANP and PML-N would get one seat each of the women reserved seats. The PPP's Nighat Orakzai, ANP's Shagufta Malik and PML-N's Sobia Khan will become MPAs on a reserved seat. Nighat Orakzai would be elected for the fourth consecutive time as MPA and Shagufta Malik and Sobia Khan would be elected as MPAs for the second time. As per the unofficial results, the PTI has won 30 of the total 39 National Assembly seats in KP, the PML-N and MMA three each and the ANP one.

As per the priority list of the PTI submitted to the ECP for the reserved NA seats in KP, the candidates are set to become MNAs are Nafisa Khattak, Sajida Zulfiqar, Naureen Farooq Ibrahim, Shandana Gulzar Khan, Uzma Riaz and Zille Huma. Nafisa Khattak and Sajida Zulfiqar would be elected as MNAs for the second time.

The party had submitted a list of eight candidates, but two candidates including Dr Rubina and Dr Ghazna Khalid Siddiqui at Serial No 5 and 7, respectively, had not submitted their nomination papers and they are not part of the list.

Similarly, the MMA and PML-N, which will get one seat each in the National Assembly. The Provincial Election Commissioner also issued a notification to the candidates on reserved seats on women and minorities to file a declaration of assets before August 4 to announce their notification as MPAs and MNAs as per the priority lists submitted by the political parties for the reserved women and minorities seats.