PESHAWAR, Jan 29: Awami National Party and Pakistan People’s Party, which jointly rule the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, are likely to win all eleven Senate seats falling vacant in March after the retirement of the incumbents, due to their numerical strength in the provincial assembly.

Elections for the said seats are slated to be held on March 2.

ANP leading the ruling coalition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 50 MPAs is likely to grab six seats, while five will go to PPP, which has 30 members in the provincial assembly.

After elections, ANP will emerge as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s biggest party in the House with 11 members followed by PPP with 10 members.

Only one ANP senator, Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, who was elected on a technocrat seat, is retiring in March after completion of six years term.

Jamaat-i-Islami, which has three seats in Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, will be the major loser in the forthcoming electoral exercise as it has no representation in the provincial assembly after boycotting the 2008 elections. It’ll have no senator from the province after March.

ANP has tasked its parliamentary board headed by provincial chief and Senator Afrasaib Khattak with awarding its Senate tickets.

The ANP sources reveal the board is considering the name of former federal minister Azam Khan Hoti, father of provincial chief minister, party president in Sindh Shahi Syed and Bannu’s Baz Mohammad Khan for general seats.

According to them, Senator Ilyas Bilour may get the ticket for the next term on a technocrat seat.

Senior ANP leader and former provincial chief of the party Begum Nasim Wali Khan, who has been sidelined by the leadership over poor health and age factor, has also applied for the Senate ticket on a women’s seat.

Besides her, three other women have applied for ANP ticket to contest Senate elections. And noted among them is Maimoona Hashim.

Only one of them will get the ticket as ANP could win only one seat in the Senate on the basis of its strength in the provincial assembly. PPP has yet to show its candidates for the elections.

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MMA, the lone opposition party in the provincial assembly with 14 members, can win one seat of the Senate. However, if it forms alliance with other political parties in the assembly, the number will double.

None of ANP senators elected on general seats is retiring in March, while one independent, two from Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and Jamaat-i-Islami each, and one each from Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao and Pakistan Muslim League-Likeminded are to vacate their seats.

Similarly, MMA women Senator Afia Zia and PML-Quaid’s Fouzia Fakhr Zaman will retire in March, while ANP’s Ilyas Bilour and JUI-F’s Qari Mohammad Abdullah elected on technocrat seats were also on their way out.

The names of the senators elected from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on general seats and retiring in March are as follows along with party affiliation: Ammar Ahmad Khan (independent), Maulana Gul Nasib and Talha Mehmud of JUI-F, Professor Khursheed Ahmad and Professor Mohammad Ibrahim of JI, Mohammad Ghufran of PPP-S and Salim Saifullah Khan of PML-Likeminded.

Similarly, MMA’s Afia Zia and Fouzia Fakhr Zaman of PML-Q elected on women seats from the province will vacate their seats.

Five ANP Senators Abdul Nabi Bangash, Haji Mohammd Adeel, Mohammad Zahid Khan, Mrs Farah Aaqil Shah and Afrasiab Khattak, three PPP Senators Sardar Ali Khan, Mrs Farhat Abbas and Adnan Khan, JUI-F Senators Haji Ghulam Ali and two independent Senators Gulzar Ahmad Khan and his son Waqar Ahmad Khan will retire in March 2015. -APP