Senate Election: RO Rejects 3, Accepts 8 Nomination Papers

The returning officer at the provincial election commission on Thursday rejected nomination papers of three candidates and accepted nomination papers of eight candidates from Punjab on the last day of scrutiny for March 3 Senate elections

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2021 ) :The returning officer at the provincial election commission on Thursday rejected nomination papers of three candidates and accepted nomination papers of eight candidates from Punjab on the last day of scrutiny for March 3 Senate elections.

The nomination papers rejected for general seats are: Pervaiz Rasheed of PML-N and Robina Akhtar of PTI.

The nomination papers of Pervaiz Rasheed were rejected for being a Rs 9.5 million defaulter of Punjab House, says the Election Commission sources here.

The nomination papers of Neelum Irshad Sheikh of PTI were also rejected for the women seat, due to absence of seconder during the scrutiny.

The nomination papers found correct and accepted for general seats are: Ijaz Chaudhry, Aon Abbas of PTI and Irfan ul Haq Siddiqui, Sajid Mir, Baligh-ur-Rehman, Afnanullah Khan of PML-N, besides Ejaz Hussain Minhas as independent candidate. The nomination papers of Sadia Abbasi of PML-N was also accepted for the women seat.

Moreover, Farhat Shehzadi, Ata Ullah Khan and Neelum Irshad Sheikh withdrew their nomination papers.

After acceptance of eight more nomination papers on the last day of scrutiny, the total number of candidates cleared for general seats have become 17, whereas two and three candidates are cleared for technocrat and women seats respectively from the Punjab.

It is pertinent to mention here that the returning officer had on February 17 already accepted nomination papers of Kamil Ali Agha of PML-Q, Zahid Hamid, Saif-ul-Malook Khokhar, Saud Majeed of PML-N and Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, Saif Ullah Khan Niazi, Omer Sarfraz Cheema of PTI, besides Azeem-ul-Haq Minhas of PPPP. The nomination papers of Muhammad Khan Madni and Jamshaid Iqbal Cheema were also accepted for general seats as independent. The nomination papers of Dr Zarqa Suharwardi of PTI and Saira Tarar of PML-N were also accepted for the women seat. The nomination papers of Barrister Ali Zafar of PTI and Azam Nazir Tarar of PML-N were accepted for the technocrat seat.

A total of forty-eight senators will be elected including 12 each from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, while eleven each from Punjab and Sindh and two from Islamabad in elections to be held on March 3 on vacant seats of Senate.

Appeals against acceptance or rejection will be disposed of by a tribunal on Feb 19 and 20.

The ECP will publish a revised list of the candidates on Feb 21, providing an opportunity to the candidates to withdraw from the race by Feb 22 after which a final list of the candidates will be issued.