PESHAWAR: As Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has clinched 16 of the 22 seats reserved for women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Ms Nighat Orakzai of Pakistan People’s Party has created history by becoming MPA on reserved seat for the fourth consecutive term.

The Election Commission of Pakistan notified on Saturday night the names of MNAs and MPAs elected on seats reserved for women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Under the Constitution, nine seats of MNAs and 22 seats of MPAs are reserved for women in the province.

PTI has won seven of nine MNA seats whereas a single seat each is won by Mutahidda Majlis-i-Amal and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

Similarly, apart from 16 seats of MPAs won by PTI, Awami National Party and MMA have secured two seats each, whereas both PPP and PML-N have begged a single seat of MPA.

Ms Orakzai was twice elected as MPA on ticket of PML in 2002 and 2008. Later, she joined PPP and was elected as MPA in 2013 and now in 2018.

PPP’s Nighat Orakzai becomes MPA for fourth consecutive term

Lady luck often smiles on her as like 2008 and 2013, when she was lone woman MPA of PML and PPPP, respectively, she is again the only woman MPA of PPP. On all the three occasions her name was at serial No 1 of the priority list of candidates submitted by her respective party.

The reserved seats for women in the National Assembly and a provincial assembly are filled through proportional representation system of political parties’ lists of candidates on the basis of total number of general seats secured by each political party in the concerned province.

Some of the women elected on these reserved seats are having nominal educational qualification, whereas some others are highly qualified.

The MNAs elected on PTI ticket from KP include former MNAs Nafisa Khattak and Sajida Zulfiqar, Naureen Farooq Ibrahim, Shandana Gulzar Khan, Uzma Riaz and Zill-i-Huma.

Although the party had submitted eight names in its list including that of Dr Rubina and Dr Ghazna Khalid Siddiqui at serial No 5 and 7, respectively, but as they had not submitted nomination papers, therefore, their names are not included in the list of candidates. Now for the seventh seat, PTI has to submit another name.

Nafeesa Khattak, the sister-in-law of former chief minister Pervez Khattak, is a matriculate, whereas Sajida Zulfiqar, who is niece of Pervez Khattak, has mentioned her qualification as “basic education”, in her nomination papers.

The MNA-elect Zill-i-Huma, hailing from Peshawar, is an intermediate qualified. Similarly, Naureen Farooq Ibrahim, who resides in Islamabad and is a voter in Kohat, has done BA honours. Her husband Sardar Farooq Ibrahim belongs to the family of Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, former president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Shandana Gulzar has done her Masters in international economic laws from abroad. She is daughter of former MNA late Gulzar Khan and hails from Peshawar. Presently, she is a trade and investment adviser.

Uzma Riaz has done her Masters in economics and is running her private Amina Montessori and School in Abbottabad.

MNA of MMA Shahida Begum, has a master degree in chemistry and is also having a BEd degree. PML-N’s MNA Begum Tahira Bukhari, who had also remained MNA from 2013 to 2018, has not mentioned her qualification.

PTI had submitted priority list of 15 female candidates for the 22 seats reserved for women in KP Assembly. Out of that list 14 candidates were declared qualified whereas one of the females, Nadia Ambreen Khattak, whose name was at serial NO 15, had not submitted nomination papers.

The 14 notified MPAs include: three former MPAs, MS Nadia Sher, Maliha Ali Asghar and Aisha Naeem, and, Momina Basit, Dr Sumera Shams, Rabia Basri, Dr Asia Asad, Sajida Haneef, Somi Falak Niaz, Ayesha Khushnood, Sitara Afreen, Zeenat Bibi, Asia Khattak and Maria Fatima.

The PTI has now to submit two more names to the ECP for notifying to be MPAs.

Two female candidates of MMA who become MPAs are: Rehana Ismail and Humaira Khatoon. Similarly, the two MPAs of ANP are Shagufta Malik and Ms Shahida, whereas that of PML-N is Sobia Khan. Both Shagufta Malik and Sobia Khan are former MPAs.

Among these MPAs, Nadia Sher, Aisha Naeem and Rabia Basri of PTI and Humaira Khatoon of MMA are matriculate. Momina Basit has also only mentioned “O-level” as her qualification.

Similarly, Sitara Afreen is even not a matriculate and has mentioned “middle” as her education qualification, whereas Ms Shahida of ANP has mentioned her qualification as “under-matric”.

Both Asia Asad and Sumera Shams are doctors. Asia Khattak has done her Masters in international relations and is also having an LLB degree. Shagufta Malik of ANP has done her Masters in political science, Rehana Ismail of MMA is having a master degree in Islamic Studies; and Sobia Khan of PML-N is also having a master degree.

Dr Sumera Shamas, hailing from Lower Dir, is 26 years of age and is stated to be the youngest MPA in KP. Her father late Shamsul Qamar was a leader of ANP, but she had joined PTI.

Somi Falak Niaz, who was a district councillor in Nowshera, is an intermediate.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2018