PTI submits list of 18 priority candidates

MMA files longest list of its priority candidates for reserved seats for minorities

ISLAMABAD : The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has submitted a list of its 18 ‘priority candidates’ for 33 reserved National Assembly seats for women from Punjab province.

Dr Shireen Mazari tops the priority list submitted by the party with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) followed by Munaza Hassan and Andleeb Abbas.

Other candidates include Asma Qadeer, Aliya Hamza, Javeria Zafar, Kanwal Shauzab, Dr Seemi Bukhari, Sobia Kamal, Nosheen Hamid, Rubina Jamil, Maleeka Bokhari, Fouzia Bahram, Rukhsana Naveed, Tashfeen Safdar, Wajeeha Ikram, Asiya Azeem, and Mashaam Hassan.



Reserved seats for women in the National Assembly are meant to ensure women participation in parliament and legislation process given their slim chances to get elected through direct elections.

There are a total of 60 seats reserved for women in the lower house of parliament. These include 33 seats for Punjab, 14 for Sindh, nine for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and four for Balochistan. These seats are allocated to parties in proportion to the number of general seats they win for an assembly.

There are a total of 272 NA seats and a simple formula of dividing 272 by 60 (reserved seats for women) is used to allocate one women seat. Hence a party winning 4.5 general NA seats will get one women seat.

Before elections, political parties are asked to submit names of their women candidates while marking their priority for these reserved seats and on the basis of priority women members are selected to the National Assembly.



Priority list for minorities

Among the mainstream political parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of religio-political parties, has submitted a longest list of its priority candidates for reserved seats for minorities in the National Assembly.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday released lists of ‘priority candidates’ for minority reserved seats in the NA submitted to it by some nine political parties apparently confident of winning enough seats in next general elections to get a share in reserved seats.

Collectively, nine parties have given a total 51 nominations for a total of 10 minority reserved seats in the lower house of parliament. In numbers, the MMA tops with a priority list of 10 candidates followed by the PTI and the Pakistan Peoples Party that have submitted lists of nine candidates each.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has made seven nominations, the Pak Sarzameen Party, the Awami National Party, the Grand Democratic Alliance have made three nominations each. The Muttahida Quami Movement has made two nominations and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q five.



Reserved seats for minorities are allocated to the parties in proportion to the number of general seats they win for an assembly, whether National or provincial. There are a total of 272 NA seats and a simple formula of dividing 272 by 10 (reserved seats for minorities) is used to allocate one minority seat.

Hence a party winning 27.2 general NA seats will get one minority seat. There is no bar on minority members from taking part in direct elections, but they usually do not go for this option.

The top three priority candidates finalised by parties include the PTI’s Lal Chand Malhi, Shunila Ruth, and Ramesh Kumar Venkwani: the PML-N’s Dr Darshan Lal, Kheel Das Kohistani, and Isphand Yar Bhindara; the PPP’s Ramesh Lal, Naveed Aamir Jeeva, and Imran Afaque Athwal; the MQM-P’s Sanjay Perwani and Manla Sharma; the PSP’s Dr Mohan Manjani, Rakesh Kumar and Suleman; the ANP’s Asif Bhatti, Ashok Kumar, and Jathindar Singh, and the MMA’s James Iqbal, Pervez Masih, and Asia Ansar.