GILGIT, March 12: Lobbying intensified on Sunday ahead of the March 22 polls for 12 reserved seats for technocrats and women in the NALC.

The seats are evenly divided; six for technocrats and six for women.

The ruling PML announced its nominations for the reserved seats. The party has a majority in the 24-member house of Northern Areas Legislative Council.

Mohammad Aslam has been nominated on technocrats’ seat from Gilgit, Jan Alam from Diamer, Ali Murad from Ghizer, Nasrullah from Astore, Ghulam Hussain from Gangche and Mirza Yusuf Hussain from Skardu.

For women’s seats, the PML has nominated Atiqa Ghazanfar Ali Khan from Gilgit.

Other nominations are: Fauzia Saleem Abbas from Skardu, Amna from Gangche, Mrs Mustafa from Diamer, Noorul Ain from Ghizer and Shaista Shamim Hamza, a former NALC member, from Astore.

Sources said that the PPP and the PML-N had opposed the creation of the reserved seats and had instead called for increasing the number of general seats.