K & P

Poll preparations: Govt, opposition mull joint Senate candidates

Speaker Asad Qaiser tells ECP officials to ensure free and fair elections.

Our Correspondent February 03, 2015 1 min read

According JI K-P chief, JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch met Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Sunday and also discussed the Upper House elections. PHOTO: EXPRESS

PESHAWAR: The provincial government and opposition parties are considering fielding joint candidates for the upcoming Senate polls to discourage horse-trading, said Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief Mohammad Ibrahim Khan.

Addressing a news conference at JI’s provincial headquarters on Tuesday, Khan said both the treasury and opposition were deliberating the matter. “JI’s parliamentary board will decide its Senate candidates soon,” he said.

According to Ibrahim, JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch met Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Sunday and also discussed the Upper House elections.

Meanwhile, opposition parties are likely to meet in a day or two in Peshawar to discuss the polls. Reports earlier surfaced that opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman did not turn up for a meeting scheduled for February 2, however, opposition member PML-N’s parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha said there was no such meeting and hence no cancellation.

According to Nalotha, the opposition leader is in Islamabad and opposition members will meet went he returns to reach a decision.

Smaller parties in the assembly, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP), are likely to suffer if the opposition and government fail to reach an understanding regarding the polls because every party is interested in sending as many of its members to the Upper House as possible.

A Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader said its provincial chief Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, Senator Ghulam Ali and Haji Jalil Jan, among others, were aspiring for Senate seats. However, he said, a final decision will be taken by the party’s parliamentary committee which was formed during a meeting of the party’s shura a day earlier.

Committee member Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told The Express Tribune the shura had discussed Senate elections but a decision on candidates will be taken in the light of reports from other provinces.

Separately, a meeting to discuss preparations for the polls took place at the Assembly Secretariat chaired by Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser. K-P Election Commissioner Musarrat Khan and officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Assembly Secretariat were in attendance.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2015.