K-P MPAs can join political party by tomorrow

ECP issued gazette notification of winners on 36 NA and 90 PA seats

PESHAWAR:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued the gazette notification late on Saturday, announcing the successful candidates for the national and provincial assembly constituencies of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. It encouraged the independent candidates to join any political party of their choice, should they wish to do so.

Elections in the province were held for 44 National Assembly seats and 113 constituencies of the provincial assembly on February 8. The ECP held back the announcement of the results of eight National Assembly and 23 K-P Assembly for various reasons.

Most of the winners in the provinces are the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed candidates, who contested the elections as independents because the ECP had denied the party of its electoral symbol of ‘bat’ because of its controversial intra-party elections.

As per the law, the independent candidates could join any political party within three days of the issuance of the gazette notification; otherwise, they would remain independents till the tenure of the assembly.

Consequently, the newly elected National Assembly members (MNAs) have until Monday (today) to join a political party, should they decide. Similarly, the newly-elected members of the provincial assembly (MPAs) have until Tuesday (tomorrow) to take the decision.

The newly-elected MNAs include Ali Amin Gandapur from NA 44; Sibghatullah, NA-4; Gohar Ali Khan, NA-10; Omar Ayub Khan, NA-18; Asad Qaiser, NA-19; Shandana Gulzar, NA-30; Shehryar Afridi, NA-35; Sher Afzal Marwat, NA-41; and others.

Gandapur, who has been nominated by the PTI as its candidate for the post of K-P chief minister, had also won a provincial assembly seat PK-113, Dera Ismail Khan. However, the notification issued on Saturday night did not include his name, which was notified on Sunday.

The gazette notification of eight National Assembly constituencies in K-P, which had not been issued so far, include Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif's constituency of NA-15 Mansehra, PML-N Provincial President Amir Muqam's constituency of NA-11 Shangla besides NA-27 Khyber, NA-28 Peshawar, NA-38 Karak, NA-40 North Waziristan and NA-43 Tank.

The 23 withheld results of the K-P Assembly constituencies include 8 constituencies of Peshawar – PK-72, PK-73, PK-74, PK-75, PK-78, PK-79, PK-80 and PK-82. The other constituencies include PK-20 and 21, Bajaur; PK 28, 29, and 30, Shangla; PK-40 Mansehra; PK-41 Torghar; PK-44 Abbottabad; PK-95 Kurram; PK-101 and 102, Bannu: and PK-103, North Waziristan

Before the elections, the ECP postponed the voting in Bajaur district’s constituencies of NA-8, and PK-22 because of the assassination of a candidate Rehan Zeb. The voting for PK-91, Kohat was postponed after the death of candidate Ismatullah.

Sindh & Punjab

The ECP has been notifying the success of candidates in due course. On February 13, it announced the victory of Mian Azhar, a PTI-backed independent candidate for NA-129, Lahore, besides 54 newly-elected independent MNAs on February 16.

Now, the ECP has also notified the success of seven independent Sindh MPAs. They are Ejaz Khan, PS-88; Wajid Khan, PS-92; Nazar Mehmood, PS-93; Mohammad Owais, PS-96; Bilal Hussain Jadoon, PS-109; Rehan, PS-110; Sarbuland Khan, PS-112; and Muhammad Shabbir, PS-114.

However, apparently, a lack of decision-making by the PTI leadership, regarding joining a party, eliminated the chances of getting reserved seats for women and minorities under articles 51 and 106 of the Constitution.

According to the Rule 92 (6) of Election Rules 2017, the winning independent candidates can formally inform the ECP regarding their decision of joining a political party within three days of the issuance of gazette notification of their victory. Otherwise, the candidate will remain as independent.

Those notified on Friday could join a political party by Monday. However, Mian Azhar failed to produce any document related to his joining any party within the specified period. Therefore, he would remain as independent, according to sources.

According to ECP sources, so far the affidavit of joining the PML-N had been received only from Raja Khurram Nawaz, who won in NA-48. The ECP had established facilitation centre for the independent candidates for joining political parties.