KP Assembly's Strength Rises To 145 After FATA Merger

The strength of the general seats and seats reserved for women, minorities in the provincial assembly has risen to 145 from 124 after the merger of the erstwhile FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Apr, 2019 ) :The strength of the general seats and seats reserved for women, minorities in the provincial assembly has risen to 145 from 124 after the merger of the erstwhile FATA into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The merger of the six tribal districts and one frontier region has add up 16 general seats to the present strength of 99, taking the total tally to 115 of the general seats.

Similarly the strength of reserved seats for women also increased to 26 from 22 while the strength of the minorities rose by one seat making it four from three.

The merger of the tribal districts has increased a total of 21 seats of the provincial assembly including 16 general seats, four women reserved seat and one reserved seat for minority.

The Election Commission on Monday notified that political parties interest to take part in election to the the KP assembly 16 general seats for merged area are directed to submit the list of their women and minority candidates against reserved seats with the returning officers before the expiry of the date fixed for filling of the nomination papers for the general seats under election Act 2017 sub clause 104.

The provincial election commissioner has been appointed as returning officer for the women and minority reserved for merged areas. The ECP also directed the political parties to submit maximum Names for reserved seats so that in case of rejection of any paper, the name of alternative candidate was available.

The elections in merged areas for KP assembly seats are likely to be held after the local bodies' elections. The election commission has already nominated the returning officer for the 16 general seats and four minority seats.