PESHAWAR, Nov 2: The tally of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal in the 124-member NWFP Assembly has increased to 68 after the Election Commission notified the names of successful candidates on seats reserved for women and non-Muslims in the provincial assemblies.

The MMA is now in a position to form its government in the province without the support of any other political group.

The PPP (Sherpao) has emerged as the second largest group in the provincial assembly with 13 seats. However, the number of its seats would be reduced to 12 as its president Aftab Ahmad Sherpao has decided to retain his National Assembly seat and vacate his provincial assembly seat PF-20 (Charssada-IV).

The number of seats won by the People’s Party Parliamentarians is 11, Awami National Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Q) won 10 seats each, whereas the PML(N) secured five seats.

The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf and Swabi Qaumi Mahaz have one member each in the assembly, while the rest of five members are independent.

Among the independent members Sardar Enayatullah Ghandapur has won two seats in D.I.Khan and would vacate one of them.

Against the 99 general seats, the MMA had bagged 48 seats. However, its strength rose to 53 as five independent MPAs-elect joined its camp during the three-day period given under a law to the independent members for joining a political party.

Out of three seats reserved for non-Muslim, two went to the MMA, whereas the third seat was secured by the PPP(S).

Similarly, of the 22 seats reserved for women in the provincial assembly 22 went to the MMA. Two seats each were secured by PPP(S), PPP, ANP and PML-Q, whereas PML-N won a single reserved seat.

The MMA candidates elected on the women’s reserved seats are: Zubaida Khatoon w/o Dr Iqbal Khalil, Yasmeen Khan w/o Khalid Khan Banori, Sabra Shakir w/o Khan Saeed, Rukhsana Bibi w/o Raz Mohammad Durrani, Nargis Zain d/o Zainul Zahideen, Riffat Jabeen d/o Mohammad Ismail, Aftab Shabir w/o Shabir Ahmad, Rehana Ismail w/o Mohammad Ismail, Fouzia Farrukh w/o Khwaja Farrukh Lateef, Nabeela Manzar w/o Manzar Jawed, Shagufta Naz w/o Rasheed Chughtai, Naeem Akhter w/o Kishwar Khan, and Ghaliba Khursheed d/o Ghaliba Khursheed.

The PPP(S) women members are; Riffat Akber Swathi w/o of Akber Swathi and Nasreen Khattak d/o Ayaz Khan Khattak. The PML-Q members are Semeen Mahmood Jan d/o Mahmood Jan and Nighat Orakzai w/o of Sajjad Mahmood.

Yasmeen Pir Mohammad Khan w/o Mohammad Ismail and Farrukh Aqil Shah w/o of Syed Aqil Shah were declared successful on ANP’s ticket.

The PPP members are Muneeba Shehzada Mansoorul Mulk w/o of Mansoorul Mulk and Saima Babar w/o Amanullah. Dr Imtiaz Sultan Bukhari w/o Sultan Hussain was declared successful on the PML-N ticket.

On the three seats reserved for non-Muslim, Gorsaran Lal of MMA and Qaseemuddin Khalid of PPP(S) were notified as successful candidates by the Election Commission.

The third seat also went to the MMA, but as the alliance had given only a single name in its priority list of candidates, therefore, the seat will remain vacant till the MMA gives name of its member.

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