PESHAWAR, April 28: Awami National Party’s senior vice-president Haji Mohammad Adeel and Pakistan Muslim League-N’s secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra were elected unopposed to two vacant Senate seats from the NWFP. They were the only candidates after Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl)’s Abdul Jalil Jan and Maulana Rafiullah Qasmi withdrew their nomination papers.

The seats fell vacant after ANP president Asfandyar Wali Khan and former chief minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan were elected to the National Assembly.

Their term will expire on March 11, 2009.

Mr Adeel has served as deputy speaker of the NWFP assembly and Mr Jhagra is a former senator and secretary-general of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy.

Major political parties in the provincial assembly had decided to support the candidates of the parties which had vacated the seats.

A delegation led by Mr Jhagra and provincial Agriculture Minister Arbab Mohammad Ayub Jan called on provincial JUI-F chief Senator Gul Naseeb Khan and requested him to withdraw his candidates in favour of the ANP and PML-N nominees and the senator announced unconditional withdrawal of JUI-F candidates.

“This decision will have a positive impact on the politics of the province and all major parties will wage a joint struggle for the development of the province and the country,” he told journalists.