ISLAMABAD, July 1: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz will contest election for the National Assembly from two constituencies, one in Punjab and the other in Sindh.

The seats are being vacated for the prime minister in-waiting by MNA from Attock Eman Wasim and lawmaker from Tharparkar Arbab Zakaullah who on Thursday submitted their resignations to National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain.

According to a notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, the resignations of both the MNAs have been accepted by the speaker and the seats have been declared vacant.

Both Eman Wasim and Arbab Zakaullah had contested the election for the first time in October 2002 from NA-59 (Attock-III) and NA-229 (Tharparkar-I). The 27-year-old Eman Wasim is the daughter of a sister of Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Attock district Nazim Tahir Sadiq.

The 50-year-old legislator from Tharparkar, Arbab Zakaullah, is a cousin of Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim. Mr Zakaullah had won the seat in a by-election after Arbab Rahim vacated it and decided to retain his provincial assembly seat. Mr Zakaullah was the parliamentary secretary for narcotics control.

Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim has been in the federal capital for a few days for talks and consultations with important personalities. A PML source told Dawn that Mr Aziz would retain the Tharparkar seat if he won from both the constituencies. And Eman Wasim, the source said, would again contest the by-election for the seat, which would be vacated by Mr Aziz. Arbab Zakaullah, the source said, had been promised that he would be made adviser to the prime minister.

Besides, the government would also announce major development projects to the tune of over Rs150 million for each of the constituencies. These projects would be announced during the election campaign of Mr Aziz, the source added.

Eman Wasim told Dawn that she had quit her seat on the orders of PML President Chaudhry Shujaat. She said the step had been taken in the 'supreme national interest' without any bargaining.

About reports that special development projects would announced for Attock during the by-election campaign, she said that if that happened, it would be to the benefit of the people of Attock.

Meanwhile, the opposition Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) has announced that it would challenge Mr Aziz in both the constituencies with full force. People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) spokesman Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar told Dawn the ARD would hold a meeting soon to chalk out its plan for the by-election.

Another PPP senator, Rukhsana Zuberi, who headed the PPP's central election cell in the last elections, said Tharparkar was a backward area and a large number of people had migrated from there due to persistent drought.

The situation, she said, was so bad that before the October 2002 elections, the deputy commissioner had recommended postponement of the polls there. Ms Zuberi alleged in a statement that official statistics proved elections were stolen in Tharparkar in 2002, without any public outcry.

She said the voter turnout in densely populated cities of Karachi, Larkana and Hyderabad ranged from 25 to 35 per cent, whereas in the sparsely populated desert area of Tharparkar, it was 68.4 per cent.