KOHAT, Sept 2: Tribesmen in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) will elect eleven National Assembly members from the seven tribal agencies and one member from the six frontier regions in the forthcoming general election on the basis of adult franchise for the first time.

Earlier, the large tribal community elected their members through indirect vote as only the Maliks, who were the representatives of the government, were allowed to elect lawmakers and get personal benefits.

The seats of federally-administered tribal areas have been increased from eight to 12 by the government on the basis of population. The number of National Assembly seats in Khyber, Bajaur, Kurram and South Waziristan Agencies has been increased from one to two. The lists of the candidates were finalized by the returning officers on Monday.

There are a total of 1,283,974 registered voters in the tribal areas comprising 814,921 male and 469,053 females. Although the recent census was supervised by the army through women in the area even then 37 per cent women population could not be registered due to taboos.

The mode of the people in Fata is against the government due to the arrest of Al Qaeda and other religious fanatics besides the disconnection of electricity supply by Wapda which wants payment of electricity charges from tribal consumers. The people of Fata were earlier exempted from the payment of electricity bills.

In the Orakzai Agency, 97,620 people would cast their votes to elect their representatives. Among them 70,717 are male and 26,903 are female voters. Similarly 20 aspirants have filed their nominations to contest the elections for NA-39 and to win the support of the tribesmen, mostly uneducated, where women are not allowed to use their right to vote.

The aspirants for NA-39 Orakzai Agency include, Mohammad Jan Orakzai, who is the brother of the Peshawar Corps Commander, Lt- Gen Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, Khalid Naeem, son of former MNA Haji Khayal Badshah, Hussain Ahmed Jalali of the Mutahidda Majlis-i- Amal, Haji Irshadullah, Capt Azad Gul, Jawad Hussain, Dr Gulab Khan, Fida Hussain advocate, Dr Ghazi Gulab Jamal and Syed Shaukat Raza.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has established 48 polling stations and 125 polling booths in both upper and lower areas of the Orakzai Agency for the convenience of the people.

The candidates who have filed their nomination papers for the single frontier region seat of NA-47 are: Abdur Razzaq, Mufti Abdul Qadoos, Mohabat Khan Shirani (Dera Ismail Khan), Shehzad Mohammad Afridi, Jamroz Khan Afridi, Dilawar Khan, Malik Mir Alam Khan (Kohat), Dr Naseem Gul, Sameen Ullah, Haji Moin ud Din Khan, Haji Zarbat Khan, Haji Zafar Khan, Zahid Khan, Malik Noor Zaman Khan, Noor Aslam, Malik Syed Aslam (frontier region, Kohat), Syed Anwar (frontier region, Peshawar), Dr Mohammad Nawaz, Saleem Khan, Malik Mohammad Janan (frontier region, Bannu) and Ashfaq Khan (frontier region, Lakki Marwat).

There is no candidate from frontier region of Tank. The total number of voters in the six frontier regions having only one seat is 120,963.

For two National Assembly constituencies of NA-37 and NA-38 in the Kurram Agency, 31 and 21 candidates, respectively, have filed their nomination papers. The total number of registered voters in both the constituencies is 234,043 and among them 106,355 are women.

In South Waziristan Agency 34 aspirants would contest the elections for NA-41 and NA-42. The papers of one candidate have been rejected who was a government employee working in a veterinary hospital. Some 208,971 voters would elect their members. There are 79,368 women voters in the area.

Similarly, 15 candidates have filed their papers from NA-36, Mohmand Agency, where the number of registered voters is 108,081 among which 28,085 are women.

In North Waziristan Agency, 33 candidates have filed their nomination papers for NA-40 out of which six were rejected by the returning officer on Monday. The number of registered voters in the area is 71,488 male and 24,960 females.

Twenty-six candidates have filed their nominations for NA-43 and NA-44 in Bajaur Agency where the number of registered voters is 246,065 male and 109,028 females.