PESHAWAR, Jan 18: More than 22 candidates belonging to various political parties have, so far, filed their nomination papers for the Senate’s 14 general and eight reserved seats for technocrats and women here with the provincial election commission.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s central leadership has allotted tickets to Prof Khursheed Ahmed, Prof Mohammad Ibrahim, Dr Murad Ali Shah, Dr Mohammad Sa’ad, Maulana Samiul Haq, Mohammad Azam Khan Swati, Maulana Rahat Hussain, Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan, Syed Hidayatullah Shah, Sahibzada Khalid Jan, Qazi Abdul Latif, Kausar Firdaus, Allama Sajid Ali Naqvi, Prof Sajid Mir and Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani, all main leaders of the religious alliance.

The MMA has yet not announced whether Maulana Noorani, Sajid Mir and SAjid Naqvi would file their nomination papers in NWFP or in Sindh and Punjab. The Election Commission had returned the incomplete nomination papers of Qazi Abdul Latif, MMA provincial chief, and asked him to file his complete papers.

The Jamaat-i-Islami, the second largest party of the MMA, had secured the Senate ticket for Prof Khursheed Ahmed from Sindh. He had filed his papers for the reserved (technocrat) seat.

The People’s Party Parliamentarian, which has eight general seats in a House of 99, has allotted party tickets to Syed Qamar Abbas, Farhatullah Babar and Mushtri Anwar Begum. Their covering candidates Sardar Ali, Shazia Tahmas and Mrs Meraj Humayun also filed their papers with the election commission.

Awami National party chief Asfandyar Wali Khan had filed his nomination papers for the general seat, and Ilyas Bilour had filed papers for the technocrat seat. Qazi Mohammad Anwar of the ANP had filed his papers as covering candidate.

The PPP-S, which has 10 general seats in the House, has yet not allotted tickets to anyone. None of the candidates from the PML-Q, having eight general seats, and PML-N, having five seats, had filed their nomination papers.

The PML-Q, was in great trouble owing to the rebellious stand of its six MPAs from Hazara division. They wanted their party to allot Senate ticket to anybody from Hazara rather than Peshawar or any other part of the province. The PML-Q leadership wants to allot party ticket to anybody except from Hazara, said Azam Khan, a PML-Q leader from Abbottabad.

The ANP has also questioned the allotment of Senate ticket to Prof Khursheed Ahmed by the MMA, saying he was not a resident of NWFP. But, the JI, held over 20 general seats in the House, said it didn’t believe in provincialism.

After an extension up to Jan 22 for the filing of nomination papers announced by the Election Commission, the PML both factions and the PPP-S have found enough time to finalize their candidates.

The five opposition parties have decided to take a joint line of action on the elections and decide about the distribution of seats outside the House to save their points for the elections on reserved seats. “One general seat will be given to each of the five parties.