KP Assembly to meet on 20th, minorities seat given to JUI-F

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will meet on July 20 [Sunday] to enable the newly-elected members on reserved seats can oath and participate in the Senate polls, after Governor Faisal Karim Kundi signed the summary.

On the other hand, the PML-N and JUI-F decided to stop the contest for one of the minorities [non-Muslims] reserved seats and give the slot to the latter.

Hence, Gurpal Singh will now sit in the KP Assembly while representing Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI-F.

Meanwhile, toss decided in favour of ANP’s Shahida Waheed in the case of a reserved seat for women. Her opponent was from the PTI-Parliamentarians.

The Senate polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are of great significance as the desired results will give the ruling alliance in the Centre a two-thirds majority in the Senate as well.

In this way, the ruling alliance would be able to pass any constitutional amendment easily from the Parliament easily.

Read more: Reserved seats saga brings two-thirds majority for Shehbaz

The development comes as Federal Minister Amir Muqam shared the news that the two party leaders had decided that the PML-N would leave the contest for one of the remaining minorities’ seat.

Amir Muqam is the president of PML-N’s provincial chapter.

Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had accepted an application moved by the PML-N, raising objections over the allocation of reserved seats and seeking application of formula for calculations according to its actual strength in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

It meant the PML-N begged one of the women’s seats while toss was suggested to decide the winner in the case of minorities’ seat in the KP Assembly.

SENATE POLLS

With the politicking as its peak for the July 21 Senate polls, Amir Muqam said the opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the PTI are currently in talks for the dividing the 11 seats, which are on offer, amicably and without any contest.

Six of these seats should be given to the PTI and the remaining five to the opposition [JUI-F, PPP and PML-N], he elaborated his argument.

“We are talking on behalf the opposition [in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa], the PTI government [provincial] would give the party’s stance itself,” he added.

However, Amir Muqam made it clear that the opposition was ready to contest the Senate polls jointly in case the two sides failed to reach an agreement to return the candidates uncontested.

It was earlier reported that the opposition parties had agreed that their members would ensure the success of JUI-F and PPP candidates on two seats each, while the PML-N is supposed to get one.

But even before the agreement among the opposition parties, Kundi had set the figure of five, although some experts were talking about the target of seven.

Read more: Kundi eyes five seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senate polls

The speculations were a result of the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench’s judgment in the reserved seats case.