ISLAMABAD, Dec 31: The government on Tuesday announced that Senate elections for the provinces will be held on Feb 4 and for Fata and Islamabad on Feb 8, a week before the Haj date.

The announcement was immediately termed by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal an attempt by the government to rob the MMA of its possible strength as on those dates most of the MMA members would be in Saudi Arabia to perform Haj.

Liaquat Baloch, Naib Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, told Dawn that by-elections would be held on Jan 15 and the government had sufficient time to hold elections in the third week of January.

The official announcement said: “The President Gen Pervez Musharraf has approved the holding of Senate elections on Feb 4, 2003 for the provinces and on Feb 8, 2003 for Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the Federal Capital (Islamabad).”

Results of recent general elections to the National Assembly and provincial assemblies, have paved the way for Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) to become the single largest party in the upper house and possibly have its chairman.

Each province has a share of 22 seats in the 100 members Senate, including eight from the FATA and four from the Federal Capital.

The MMA which is the third largest parliamentary party after the PML-Q and Pakistan People’s Party, will have about 50 per cent share from the NWFP Assembly, about thirty per cent share from Balochistan, 10 per cent from Sindh and about two per cent from Punjab.

The MMA would also be in position to get at least one seat out of total four seats from Islamabad. The MMA will also have share from the FATA as five out of 12 MNAs from the FATA are still with the MMA. Two, however, have voted for Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Monday.

PML-Q and PPP would be on second and third positions respectively. The military government had first changed the electoral college of Senate to proportional representation.

The announcement was partially dropped by announcing that Senate elections from provincial assemblies would be held according to existing mechanism provided in Constitution but eight FATA senators would be elected through direct vote.

It was argued that MNAs from FATA used to vote on pecuniary considerations and in the past known drug peddlers had managed to come to the Upper House. Ayub Khan Afridi was one those smugglers who entered into the Senate through the same channel.

The government, however, could not maintain its stance and announced that Senate elections from the FATA, too, would also be held on the existing mechanism, meaning that 12 MNAs from the FATA would elect eight senators representing that territory.