PESHAWAR, Nov 14: The member of the Election Commission of Pakistan, Justice Qazi Ahsanullah Qureshi, has issued notice to the attorney-general of Pakistan, Makhdoom Ali Khan, for deciding the issue of a minorities’ reserved seat in the NWFP Assembly.

The member fixed Nov 23 for next hearing.

Through the Conduct of General Elections Ordinance, 2002, three seats were reserved for the minorities in the NWFP Assembly.

Under the procedure given for filling the seats, political parties had to submit their respective priority lists carrying names of their candidates. Seats had to be allotted to the candidates in accordance with the number of seats won by their respective political parties.

In the NWFP, out of the three minorities seats two went to the MMA and one to the PML-Q.

Interestingly, the MMA had given only two names in its list, out of which one of the candidate, Ms Julia was disqualified as she had not attained the age of 25 years.

A candidate, Felix Innocent, had mentioned the name of his party as National Awami Party Pakistan (NAPP), in his nomination papers, but as finally he was not allotted party ticket, therefore he joined the MMA in protest.

The MMA had at present given the name of Mr Innocent to the Election Commission, praying that he should be declared successful on the remaining one minority seats won by the MMA.

The issue was initially taken up for hearing by the election commission in Islamabad, but was later referred to Justice Qazi Ahsanullah Qureshi of the Peshawar High Court.

The election laws and rules were silent on the issue whether a candidate could join another party before announcement of the result; and, whether he could be declared successful if he had filed papers on behalf of the NAPP and the seat was won by the MMA.

Advocate Essa Khan appeared for the MMA and Mr Innocent, stating that he had filed his papers before the holding of elections on Oct 10. He stated that his filing of papers on behalf of the NAPP was a closed transaction, as he was not nominated by that party and he joined the MMA before the announcement of the results on seats reserved for minorities.

He argued that as two reserved seats were won by the MMA and it had only given name of a single candidate as the second candidate was disqualified, therefore it was the legal right of the MMA to nominate any other candidate for that seat.

He argued that when the MMA had no objection over the filing of the papers by Mr Innocent on behalf of the NAPP and his subsequent joining of the party, the election commission should have no objection over it.

The member decided to ask the attorney-general of Pakistan for assisting the court on the point to decide the issue.