Pakistan: 3 major parties short of two-thirds majority

Islamabad, Mar 7: The combined strength of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Awami National Party (ANP) in the newly-elected National Assembly is slightly short of the two-thirds majority. owever, they may cross the two-thirds mark if they win the remaining 10 seats (whose results have not been announced because of litigation, polling termination and polling suspension) or secure the support of the JUI-F which has six seats, Dawn newspaper reported today.

The number position became a little clear after the Election Commission announced at a press conference last evening details of the reserved seats for women and minorities allocated to different winning parties on a proportional basis. The three parties needed 228 seats in the house of 342 for a two-thirds majority. But, they have at present 225 seats, ''Three short of the magic figure,'' to take some major steps like impeaching the President and scrapping article 58(2)(b) to deprive the president of powers to dissolve the National Assembly.

The seats have been allocated on the basis of the seats won by the parties in the February 18 elections and the independent lawmakers joining them. The PPP got 27 of the 60 reserved seats for women and four of the 10 reserved for minorities.

The PML-N got 17 and 3 seats reserved for women and minorities, respectively while the ANP, which won 10 seats in the National Assembly, has clinched three seats reserved for women.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MAM) which bagged five seats in the general elections has got one of the seats reserved for women.The Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) got nine seats for women and two for minorities. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MMA) got five seats for women and one seat for minorities.

The Election Commission has successfully completed the election process and today"s segment was the last one, Commission"s secretary Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad said. 'By now the Commission has announced the results for 331 seats with seven in litigation, two terminated, one postponed and result on one seat reserved for women was a tie,'' he added.

UNI