PESHAWAR - Though Opposition parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have desired to field joint candidates in the scheduled Senate elections, there is a deadlock among them despite holding several meetings on Monday to reach consensus.
To come to a conclusion, a joint meeting of Opposition parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was held at the Opposition leader's chamber which also attended by leaders of ANP, JUI-F, PPP, QWP and PML-N.
The Opposition parties had claimed that they would reach some consensus in the meeting.
On Monday, a meeting of all the five Opposition parties was held which was represented by JUI-F's Maulana Lutfur Rahman, Maulana Attaur Rahman, ANP's Senator Haji Adeel, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Sardar Babak, Jaffar Shah, QWP's Sikandar Sherpao, PML-N's Aurangzaib Nalota, Javed Abbasi and Nighat Orakzai and Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha of PPP.
The deadlock persisted even after the hours-long deliberations and it was decided to hold another session of the meeting later in the evening.
The meeting was in progress till filing of this report.
Talking to media persons after the first meeting, Opposition Leader in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Maulana Lutfur Rahman said that so far the joint Opposition failed to come up with a joint strategy.
He, however, said that there was some progress and another meeting would be held to decide the issues.
He said that the leaders of PML-N and QWP have to make consultation with senior leadership of their respective parties. The sources said that JUI-F and PML-N are creating hurdles in finalising the candidates list. Both the parties wanted to get two seats each, while the other parties who have lesser representation in the Assembly stressed the need for one berth for each of the five Opposition parties.
ANP's Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that different proposals came under discussion in the meeting but they failed to reach some final decision.
He said that more meetings would be held to reach consensus.
He was of the opinion that the best solution for all the parties was that each one should be allotted one seat.
At present in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, the PTI is the largest party with 56 lawmakers in the 124-member house. JUI-F follows with 17 members, PML-N with 16, QWP with 10 while PTI's coalition partner has eight seats.
While, other coalition partner, AJIP, occupies five seats while Opposition parties PPP and ANP have five seats each. The two remaining seats are held by independent MPAs supporting the government.