Assignment in centre: Khattak, Qaiser to give up seats in K-P

Former CM and speaker will retain National Assembly seats to strengthen party position

PESHAWAR: Following the direction of Election Commission of Pakistan to retain one seat, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf elected members Pervez Khattak and Assad Qasir will resign from the provincial seat.

On Saturday, ECP issued a notification which stated that as per Article 223 (3) of the Constitution, all candidates elected on multiple seats in the national or provincial assemblies will have to tender their resignations before they take the oath of membership for the assemblies.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa PTI had awarded tickets for National Assembly to four of its members including Dr Haider Ali Khan, Assad Qaiser, Muhammad Atif Khan and Pervez Khattak. All except Atif won their seats.

Haider bagged NA-2 Swat-I and PK-3 Swat-II, Asad Qaiser won NA-18 Swabi-I and PK-44 Swabi-II, Pervez Khattak was declared successful on NA-25 Nowshera-I and PK-61 Nowshera-I, while Atif lost NA-21 Mardan- II but secured the PK-50 Mardan-III seat.

Now PTI needs to retain more seats in National Assembly to gain majority for forming a government, which is why party leader Imran Khan suggested the returned candidates to retain their NA seats.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa former CM Pervez Khattak was expected to get an important portfolio, for which the party leadership asked him to give up the provincial assembly seat.

Similarly, PTI has nominated former K-P speaker Asad Qaiser for NA speaker slot, for which he would have to vacate the PK seat.

Currently, PTI has 64 out of 96 general seats in provincial assembly.

Among other parties MMA has 10, Awami National Party seven, Pakistan Muslim League-N five, Pakistan People Party four, Pakistan Muslim League-Q one while five members have won as independent.

Out of 22 reserved seats for women 16 seats will be given to PTI, each two will be given to MMA and ANP while each one might be given to PPP and PML-N.  

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2018.