Daily Times

Two more candidates have won the women’s seats in Punjab for the Senate elections unopposed.

According to the Election Commission sources, Sadia Abbasi of PML-N and Dr Zarqa of PTI have won the women’s seats. Reports said that PML-N’s candidate Saira Afzal Tarar withdrew her nomination papers for the Senate polls after which there was no third candidate to contest the two women’s seats.

Aside from the women’s seats, two candidates contesting the technocrat seats have already won unopposed. These include PML-N’s Azam Nazir Tarar and PTI’s Syed Ali Zafar. Reports said that Saud Majeed of PML-N withdrew his nomination papers for the technocrat seat which automatically paved the way for Tarar and Zafar to win the seats.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday issued revised list of validly nominated candidates for Senate elections from federal capital and four provinces. According to an official of ECP, during February 22 to February 23, three appeals were filed for general seats which included one each from Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while all three appeals were rejected. One appeal was filed from Sindh for seats reserved for Women which was rejected while 18 appeals were filed for seats reserved for ulema and technocrats out of which four were accepted while 14 were rejected.

Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday said it will hear appeals filed by MQM-Pakistan and PTI leaders challenging an election tribunal’s order declaring them ineligible for Senate technocrat seats. The separate pleas were filed by PTI’s Saifullah Abro and MQM-P’s Rauf Siddiqui.

Abro, in his plea, argued that the tribunal gave the ruling in his case while ‘ignoring the facts’. On the other hand, Rauf Siddiqui, whose papers were rejected by a returning officer, also urged the court to overturn the decision and let him contest the Senate polls.