August 22, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 8, 1428

PESHAWAR, Aug 21: The People’s Party Parliamentarians is charging the highest application fees from its members seeking party tickets for the next general elections, followed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.

In the NWFP, the PPP seems to be ahead of other parties in receiving applications from the desiring candidates. According to provincial PPP chief Rahimdad Khan, most of the applications have been sent to the central committee for scrutiny and selection.

“We have almost completed the process of receiving applications from the aspiring candidates, but still more people are coming and they may be considered for the vacant seats,” he said.

He said the party’s fee for provincial assembly candidates was Rs25,000 and for National Assembly Rs30,000.

He said the party tickets are awarded by the central committee after getting recommendations from the district and provincial organisations and surveying the workers’ opinion.

An Islamabad-based office-bearer of the PML told Dawn that the party was charging Rs20,000 from provincial and Rs30,000 from National Assembly aspirants.

He said all the applications had been forwarded to provincial party president Amir Muqam, who would form a parliamentary board for selecting the candidates.

He said the PML had set Aug 24 as the last date for submitting applications for party tickets but the response from the candidates was lukewarm, mainly because of political uncertainty.

He was of the view that the situation would become clear after re-election of President Pervez Musharraf because many among the ruling alliance were looking towards that.

The PML (Nawaz) has fixed Rs10,000 fee for provincial and Rs20,000 for National Assembly ticket applications.

A provincial leader of the party said that the last date to submit application had been extended from Aug 20 to Aug 25 because of lukewarm response from the members.

He said that about 25 members had obtained application forms from the party’s provincial secretariat, of whom eight had submitted them.

He said the situation in the NWFP for the party was not favourable but it could change once its leader Nawaz Sharif landed in the country.

The Awami National Party has convened its central committee meeting on Aug 23 in Quetta, to be followed by meetings of the provincial committees where provincial parliamentary boards will be constituted for awarding the tickets.

Provincial ANP chief Afrasiyab Khattak said the party traditionally invited applications after the announcement of election schedule but it had done its homework in this regard. He said the party’s fee for provincial assembly candidates was Rs5,000 and for National Assembly Rs10,000.

Sources said most of the party’s members were interested in the NWFP Assembly election.

On the other hand, the major components of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal do not invite application forms from the candidates.

The district executive committees of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and the Jamaat-i-Islami recommend the names of candidates to the provincial committees, which award tickets in consultation with the central bodies.