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Daily Times, Pakistan
February 23,
2003
Summary: Article provides
background on Pakistan’Äôs Senate, which is elected by the members of
the Provincial Assemblies using choice voting (the single
transferable vote). It also lists the candidates who are running for
Senate.
Daily Times, Pakistan
35 in race for 22 Senate seats from NWFP
By
Zakir Hassnain
February 23, 2003.
PESHAWAR: Three more candidates withdrew their nomination papers on
Sunday, leaving 35 candidates in the run for 22 Senate seats from
the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The polling for the upper
house’Äôs 14 general seats, four reserved for technocrats, Ulema and
professionals and four reserved for women will begin from 9:00am at
the NWFP Assembly on Monday. The Senate, the upper house of the
Pakistani parliament that came into existence in the country in
1973, is part of the Article 59 of the 1973 Constitution. It gives
equal representation to all the federating units. The number of
total Senate seats after its creation was 45 - 10 for each province,
three for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and two for
capital Islamabad. Late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’Äôs government increased
the number of tribal seats from 3 to 5. The total number of seats
was increased to 87 during the Zia regime. The break-up was 19 seats
for each province, 8 for FATA and 3 for capital Islamabad. The
number of Senate seats was further raised to 100 under the Legal
Framework Order by the present government. The share of each
province is raised to 22 seats while 4 seats are allocated for
Islamabad. The number of FATA seats remains the same. Each
provincial assembly member will cast his or her vote on ’Äúsingle
transferable vote’Äù basis. One MPA enjoys the right to vote for 14
candidates contesting 14 general seats and four each for technocrats
and women. Ballot papers for general seats, technocrats and women’Äôs
seats would be separate. A Provincial Election Commission (EC)
official told Daily Times that Qazi Muhammad Anwar, ANP candidate
contesting a general seat, Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gillani, an
independent candidate for a technocrat seat, and Shaheen Sardar Ali,
another independent contesting a seat reserved for women, withdraw
their nomination papers on Sunday. With the withdrawal of these
three candidates, now 22 candidates for 14 general seats, 6 for 4
seats reserved for technocrats and 7 candidates for 4 women’Äôs seats
are in the race. The candidates for general seats are Syed
Hidayatullah Shah, Shaukat Ali Khan, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Professor
Khurshid Ahmed, Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Sahibzada Khalid Jan
Banoori, Maulana Rahat Hussain, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Qazi Abdul
Latif, Fazl-e-Qadar, Gul Naseeb Khan (all MMA), Asfandyar Wali Khan
(ANP), Sardar Ali Khan_ (PPPP), Engineer Fazal Hussain and Khalilur
Rehman (PML-QA), Shujaul Mulk and Asif Jan Khan (PPP-Sherpao),
Sardar Mehtab Ahmed (PML-Nawaz), Gulzar Ahmed Khan, Waqar Ahmed
Khan, Lt Col (r) Inamullah Khan Wazir and Syed Muhammad Akram Shah
(independents). Those vying for four seats reserved for technocrats
are Dr Muhammad Said, Maulana Samiul Haq and Muhammad Saeed Advocate
(MMA), Farhatullah Babar (PPPP), Ilyas Ahmed Bilour (ANP) and Syed
Tanzimul Haq Halimi (independent). Kauser Firdaus, Mumtaz Bibi,
Musarrat Shaheen Kakakhel and Nargis Manzoor (MMA), Begum Fozia
Fakharuz Zaman (PML-QA), Anisa Zeb (PPP-S) and Ayesha Mumtaz Malik
(independent) are contesting women’Äôs seats. Initially, 54
candidates - 29 for general seats, 14 for technocrat seats and 11
for women’Äôs seats - had filed their nomination papers with the
election commission. |
