The priority list for reserved seats for women in the Sindh Assembly as submitted to the Provincial Election Commission (PEC) by the MQM was released on Friday who will secure at least 8 out of the 29 reserved seats for women in the assembly.
Although the party has not officially released the priority list, the list submitted at the office of the PEC in the order of priority includes the names of Bilqees Mukhtar, Nadia Gabol, Heer Soho, Zareen Majeed, Husna Aftab, Musarrat Bano Warsi, Naheed Begum, Dr Saba Syed and Shahnaz — if the party is able to secure a ninth seat after the recounting of votes of an MQM candidate, Abdul Haseeb, from PS-92.
According to the electoral formula, based on the 39 general seats the MQM has won in the Sindh Assembly, the party can secure 8.70 reserved seats for women and 2.7 for minorities. There are 168 seats in total in the Sindh Assembly, including 29 seats reserved for women and nine for minority candidates. To determine the number of reserved seats for women for each party, the number of general seats (secured by the party through direct elections) has to be divided by 4.48 — which is the average obtained by dividing the total number of general seats (130) with the number of reserved seats (29). The same formula is used to calculate the number of reserved seats for minorities.
PPP: The PPP, however, holds the majority number of reserved seats for women (15.4) and minorities (4.79). Shazia Marri, Firdous Hameed alias Farheen Mughal, Mehreen Bhutto, Humera Alvani, Farzana Baloch, Shama Mathani, Raynaz Bozdar, Kulsoom Chandio, Shehla Raza, Nadia N.D Khan, Rukhsana Shah, Tauqeer Bhutto, Rashida Panwher, Fariha Haroon, Aisha Khosa and Shamim Ara Panwher.
Names of the final candidates for minorities include Dr Mohan Lal, Pitambar Sehwani, Lal Chand, Mukesh Kumar Chawla and Salim Khokhar.
PML-Q: The PML-Q has won ten general seats and 2.23 seats for women. According to their
priority list, Dr Sajeela Leghari and Nuzhat Pathan are eligible to secure the reserved seats.
PML-F: Syeda Marvi Rashdi and Nusrat Bani Seher Abbasi are the eligible candidates for the 1.5 reserved seats the PML-F has secured in the Sindh Assembly. The party has won seven general seats in the assembly.
NPP: The National People’s Party has secured three seats and after the official announcement of election results, the party hopes to secure at least one reserved seat for its candidate Samina Khalil.
ANP: Since the PPPP and ANP have agreed to form coalition governments in Sindh, the party is hopeful of nominating atleast one woman candidate, Saima Syed d/o ANP Sindh President Shahi Syed. The ANP was able to secure only two seats in the Sindh Assembly and cannot be entitled to a reserved seat unless the PPPP and ANP form alliance.
