PESHAWAR, Dec 1: The member, Election Commission of Pakistan, Justice Qazi Ahsanullah  Qureshi,here on Saturday reserved his judgment on a vacant reserved seat for the non-Muslims in the NWFP assembly.

The member heard Advocate Essa Khan, representing the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, and Advocate Shakeel Ahmad, representing the Pakistan People’s Party candidate and the deputy attorney general of Pakistan, Hamid Farooq Durrani.

Out of the three seats reserved for the non-Muslims, two went to the MMA under the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002, however, one seat remained vacant as they had proposed only two names in the priority list. One of their candidates, Ms Julia, was disqualified as she had not attained 25 years of age, as required by the law.

The MMA had written to the Chief Election Commissioner to declare Mr Felix Innocent returned candidate for the seat, but the PPPP candidate,  Prince Jawed, objected over it, stating that because Mr Felix was  proposed by the National Party Pakistan so he could not represent the MMA.

The election rules are silent on the issue regarding a candidate  joining another party before the announcement of the result. 

Advocate Essa Khan said that Mr Felix had filed his papers before  the Oct 10 elections. He stated that as he was not nominated by the NPP and he joined the MMA before the announcement of results.

He argued that as two reserved seats were won by the MMA and it had proposed one candidate as the second candidate was disqualified, therefore it was now the legal right of the MMA to nominate any other candidate for that seat. 

Hamid Farooq Durrani, stated that as the MMA was the majority party in the NWFP assembly, therefore under the Conduct of General Elections Order, two seats had to be given to the MMA out of the three reserved for the non-Muslims.

Advocate Shakeel argued that as the MMA had proposed the names of only two candidates and one of them was disqualified, therefore the seat   should go to the second largest party after the MMA.