ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Tuesday the names of candidates selected on seats reserved for women and minorities in the National Assembly after making some unexplained changes in the draft notification earlier prepared by it.

The ECP notified allocation of 25 of the 35 reserved seats for women from Punjab, dropping the names of Belum Hasnain of the PPP and Tanzeela Aamir Cheema of the PML-N which had been included in the previous draft. Their names had been mentioned in the lists of candidates for the seats submitted by their parties.

Syed Sher Afgan, Director General (elections) of the commission, could not be contacted for comments on the matter.

According to the notification, 23 seats from Punjab have gone to the PML-N which, on the basis of number of its MNAs elected on general seats from the province, is to get 31 seats. The reason for the shortfall is the presence of only 23 names in the list submitted by the party.

Under rules, no change can be made in the list at this stage. Therefore, the commission has issued a new schedule to fill the eight vacant seats. Under the schedule, candidates will submit nomination papers to returning officers on Wednesday (today), which will be scrutinised by the officials on Thursday. Then a revised list of candidates will be published.

Those allotted 25 seats are: Anushe Rehman Ahmad Khan, Zaib Jaffar, Tahira Aurangzeb, Parveen Masood Bhatti, Ayesha Raza Farooq, Shaista Pervaiz, Nighat Parveen, Begum Majeeda Wynne, Khalida Mansoor, Asiya Naz Tanoli, Rida Khan, Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Laila Khan, Arifa Khalid Pervaiz, Surriya Asghar, Shahzadai Umerzadi Tiwana, Maiza Hameed, Farhana Qamar, Shahin Shafiq, Iffat Liaquat, Shazia Ashfaq Mattu, Romina Khurshid Alam of the PML-N and Dr Shireen Mehrunnisa Mazari and Munaza Hassan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

According to the notification, those selected on 14 seats from Sindh are: Faryal Talpur, Shagufta Jumani, Nafisa Shah, Shazia Marri, Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, Alizeh Iqbal Haider and Musarrat Mahesar of the PPP; Kishwar Zehra, Tahira Asif, Samina Sultana Jaffri and Dr Nikhat Shakeel Khan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM); Reeta Ishwar of the PML-F, Ms Shahjehan of the National People’s Party and Marvi Memon of the PML-N.

According to the draft notification, the MQM was to get five seats but the final notification does not contain the name of the party’s fifth candidate, Dr Fauzia Hameed. She has been replaced by Marvi Memon.

The names of President Asif Ali Zardari’s sisters Faryal Talpur and Azra Fazal Pechuho, who have been elected MNAs on general seats, were also included in the PPP’s list. But the notification does not contain the name of Ms Pechuho. Nobody in the ECP could explain the reason for this.

From Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak, Musarrat Zaib, Sajida Begum and Aisha Gulalai of the PTI, Shahida Akhtar Ali and Naeema Akhtar of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F), Begum Tahira Bukhari of the PML-N and Aisha Syed of Jamaat-i-Islami have been selected on reserved seats for women.

From Balochistan, Kiran Haider (PML-N), Naseema Rehman (Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party) and Aliya Kamran (JUI-F) have been allotted seats.

MINORITIES: Dr Darshan, Bhagwan Das, Insphanyar M. Bhindara, Tariq C. Qaiser and Khalil George of the PML-N, Ramesh Lal of the PPP, Lal Chand of the PTI, Sanjay Perwani of the MQM and Aasiya Nasir of the JUI-F have been elected on nine of the 10 seats reserved for minorities.

The name of Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of the PML-N, which was on the draft notification, has been dropped.

Meanwhile, a day after dissolution of the three election tribunals in Sindh, the ECP has dissolved all the tribunals in rest of the country. There were five tribunals in Punjab and three each in other provinces.

An apparent reason for dissolution of tribunals is a deviation from the procedure and formation of the tribunals without consultation with the chief justices of the high courts.

An official said the commission had received and approved names of the members of new tribunals. He said the number of tribunals would be doubled in Punjab, Sindh and KP and another two tribunals would be established in Balochistan.