Muzaffarabad: The phase of election for reserved seats of the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly will be completed tomorrow. The polling will be held at the Assembly Hall in Muzaffarabad. According to the schedule of the Election Commission, voting will continue from 10 am to 1 pm.
There are a total of eight reserved seats in the Assembly. These include five seats for women. One seat is for Ulema and Mashaikh. One seat is reserved for overseas Kashmiris, and one is reserved for technocrats and professionals. The people do not vote directly on these seats. The elected members of the assembly elect them.
Six candidates are now in the fray for the five women’s seats. After the withdrawal of Shaheen Kausar Dar, the contest will be between Riffat Abid, Zubia Khurshid, Sehrish Qamar, Farzana Yaqoob, Maryam Idrees and Maryam Zaman.
Two candidates are contesting for the Ulema and Mashaikh seat. They include Hafiz Tariq Mahmood and Muhammad Mazhar Saeed. Syed Iftikhar Gilani and Sahibzada Zulfiqar Ali are contesting on the Technocrats and Professionals seats.
The election process for the Overseas Kashmiris seat has already been completed. Abdul Rehman has been declared unopposed on this seat. Thus, voting will be held for a total of seven seats.
The election for the special seats will play a significant role in determining the overall political strength of the new assembly. In the recent direct elections, the PML-N emerged as the largest party with 25 seats. The PPP won 12 seats.
There are 53 seats in the Azad Kashmir Assembly. Of these, 45 are directly elected members, while eight are reserved seats. However, due to the law and order situation, elections for seven direct seats have not yet been held. Therefore, currently 38 directly elected members will vote in the reserved seats.
The party position of the assembly will become more clear after the results of the reserved seats. After this, the stage of election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will come. According to sources, the process for the election of the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir is also expected in the coming days.
This stage is considered important for the formation of a new government. The distribution of reserved seats will change the numerical position of different parties. After this, the issue of the majority required for government formation in the assembly will become more clear.
