Asif Zardari rules out possibility of ‘seat adjustment’ with any party

ISLAMABAD: Former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Monday ruled out possibility of seat adjustment with any political party in general elections 2024, ARY News reported.

The PPP co-chairman made these remarks during a meeting with party’s Punjab leadership in Lahore. The meeting deliberated on PPP’s strategy for upcoming general elections.

Rejecting possibility of seat adjustment, Asif Zardari said that PPP will contest the upcoming general elections “on their own”.

He pointed out that PPP was receiving multiple requests for party tickets from every constituency, vowing to award ticket to “strongest candidate”.

Read More: PPP clarifies stance on electoral alliance, seat adjustment

Earlier, it was reported that PPP leadership decided not to make seat adjustments with PML-N in the upcoming general election and termed it a ‘loss trade’.

PPP sources indicated that the seat adjustment with PML-N is a ‘loss trade’ as the failure of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) tenure will fall on PML-N in the upcoming general elections.

All political parties have geared up for the upcoming general elections, scheduled to be held in February 2024, by interviewing candidates and strategising their policies.

Recently, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued the final constituency list containing the number of National Assembly (NA) and the Provincial Assembly (PA) seats.

The ECP spokesperson said in a statement that two special tribunals wrapped up 1,324 objections to the delimitations. There will be 266 NA and 593 PA seats across Pakistan.

In the NA, Balochistan has a total of 20 seats, including 16 general and four reserved seats for women; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 45 general seats and 10 reserved seats for women; Sindh has a total of 75 NA seats and of these, 61 are general and remaining 14 are reserved for women; while in Punjab there are 141 general seats and 32 seats reserved for women.

The federal capital has three general seats in the National Assembly with no reserved seat for women.

General elections

It is pertinent to mention here that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday notified general elections on February 8, 2024.

According to details, the Election Commission of Pakistan issued a notification of the date of the general election under Section 57 of the Election Act۔

The notification said that in light of the Supreme Court’s order, the general elections will take place on February 8, 2024.