ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: Nominations of women candidates on reserved seats for the assemblies, finalised by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, have drawn mixed reaction within the ranks of the party as most candidates and activists are happy to see the names of old and hardworking workers in it while some have objection to the inclusion of newcomers who had made no contribution for the party.

Interviews with a number of women candidates and diehard party workers reveal that most of them are unhappy with the allocation of tickets to those who did nothing for the party in the past and did not perform well as members in the previous assemblies. They believe that in some cases, performance of candidates has not been weighed properly while prioritising names on the list.

Under the Election Laws 2002, women on reserved seats are elected through proportional representation system of political parties’ lists of candidates on the basis of a total number of general seats won by each political party.

For the purpose of election to seats reserved for women in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies, the political parties contesting election for such seats file separate lists of their candidates in order of priority for the reserved seats with the Election Commission.

The PPP activists and leaders said it seemed that merit was not the sole criteria in some cases while finalising the lists of women candidates. They said they were surprised to see the name of Farah Naz Isphahani, wife of Hussain Haqqani, former adviser to Ms Bhutto, at number five on the National Assembly seat from Sindh and at number two on the list for the Sindh Assembly. Keeping in view the party’s past performances in the elections, one can easily predict that Farah Naz with such a high ranking will easily become MNA as well as MPA.

The party activists said Farah Naz had done nothing for the party and even Hussain Haqqani had left the PPP without leaving good memories.

Similarly, the party activists were not happy with the leadership’s decision to award ticket to Mrs Qayyum Nizami for the Punjab Assembly seat. One of the PPP activists remarked that she was the wife of the person, who was made chairman of the Auqaf Department by Ms Bhutto in her second term. However, soon after removal of Ms Bhutto’s government, he allegedly wrote an article describing Ms Bhutto and Asif Zardari as the most corrupt couple of the country.

Mrs Nizami has been placed at number 10 on the list of women candidates for the Punjab Assembly. Another surprising name for the PPP activists is that of Fareeha Razzaq Haroon. They said though Fareeha was a member of the previous Sindh Assembly, she did not give sufficient time to party activities.

Fareeha Haroon is at number 14 in the list of candidates for Sindh Assembly and, therefore, this time she has very little chance to make it to the assembly. There is also resentment among the party cadres over the placement of former MNA Rubina Saadat Qaimkhani at number six in the list of National Assembly candidates from Sindh as according to them, her performance as MNA was not satisfactory and, therefore, she did not deserve to be at this place.

On the other hand, former MNA Fauzia Wahab and ex-MPA Shazia Ata Marri remained active throughout the last five years, but ironically their names are mentioned below in the list. The sources said the PPP activists believed that Ms Bhutto in the past had also committed such mistakes. Giving an example, they said during the last Senate election, Ms Bhutto awarded ticket to Maleeha Malik, the sister of acting prime minister Mohammadmian Soomro, who was now contesting against the PPP candidate on the PML-Q ticket from Jacobabad.

On the other hand, the PPP activists are happy to see for the first time the names of old party workers who had made it to the list. They are Nargis Faiz Malik, Palwasha Behram, Sajida Mir, Faiza Malik, Mehreen Bhutto and Uzma Bokhari.

However, they said Uzma Bokhari and Faiza Malik, who had been very active in the Punjab Assembly and were arrested and beaten up by the police a number of times, had been placed at numbers 22 and 23 in the list for the provincial assembly whereas some unknown women were way above them in the list. Similarly, well-known PPP woman activist from Lahore Sajida Mir is at number 16 in the list for the Punjab Assembly and according to them, she deserved a much higher placing.

When contacted, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said a number of factors were taken into consideration while awarding party tickets to women candidates. He said some of the factors could be discussed and some could not. He said some names in the list could be surprising for them, saying “you can never keep all the people happy all the time”.

He said the party leadership was ready to explain the reasons for inclusion of each candidate. He said whenever someone objected to a particular name, he or she was given an explanation which left them satisfied to some extent.

He said for nomination of women candidates the party had constituted committees and that he was also a member of the committee which was to finalise the names from the NWFP. He further said each and every candidate had been interviewed by Ms Bhutto either in Dubai or Karachi.