PESHAWAR: The Pakistan People’s Party is trying to make seat adjustments with the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the coming general elections to ensure the success of most of its nominees for national and provincial assemblies.

Sources in the party told Dawn that the PPP and JUI-F leaders had so far met twice in Peshawar to discuss the seat adjustment option.

“If this (seat) adjustment happens, we’re confident to bag two national and six provincial assembly seats in Peshawar,” a senior PPP leader said.

He said the process of negotiations had been initiated by former PPP provincial president Syed Zahir Ali Shah, who was also the candidate from PK-78, Peshawar-XIII.

The PPP leader said participants of the dialogue included NA-30 Peshawar-IV candidate Arbab Alamgir and NA-31 Peshawar-V and PK-76 Peshawar-XI candidate Ziaullah Afridi from the PPP and NA-27 Peshawar candidate Haji Ghulam Ali and Abdul Jalil Jan from the JUI-F.

“We have discussed a seat adjustment formula on the basis of votes obtained by the 2013 election candidates. Most of the things will be cleared in the third meeting, which is likely to happen soon after Eidul Fitr,” a source said.

When contacted, PPP provincial information secretary Gohar Khan Inqilabi confirmed the negotiations but said he didn’t have details of the negotiations.

“The issue pertains to Peshawar district and therefore, the local office-bearers of the party can better respond to any question about it,” he said.

Mr Inqilabi said the party had authorised all district organisations to contact other political parties for possible seat adjustment at least to ensure the success of the candidates, who had lost the last elections by a low margin.

“We are trying to make election understanding with different political parties in Swabi district too but face some hurdles,” he said.

However, Jamaat-i- Islami provincial general secretary Abdul Wasi said neither the PPP nor JUI-F had contacted his party yet.

“We have developed consensus about 32 National Assembly and over 80 provincial assembly seats in the province. The MMA is successfully moving ahead and so, how it will give its seats to another party,” he said.

The JI leader said if the JUI-F was willing to give seats to the PPP from its own share, then the Jamaat had no information about that.

He said the issue hadn’t been discussed in the MMA meetings.

“We will finalise our candidates and issue their list to the media after Eidul Fitr. The Jamaat has nothing to do with the PPP’s seat adjustment move,” he said.

JUI-F spokesman Haji Abdul Jalil Jan confirmed dialogue and said the initiative had taken by PPP leader Syed Zahir Ali Shah over an iftar dinner but there was no progress on it.

“We cannot surrender the seats of our popular candidates like Ghulam Ali, Asif Iqbal Daudzai and others to the PPP,” he said.

“It is very late to discuss such things as we have already named candidates. It will be very difficult to withdraw tickets from our people at this stage,” he said.

Mr Shah said PPP’s conditions for alliance were impracticable as the JUI-F couldn’t surrender its constituencies to please the PPP.

He claimed that the MMA’s electoral position in most areas was far better than other political parties and it would emerge victorious in the 2018 general elections.

MMA provincial president Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan wasn’t available for comments despite repeated attempts.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2018