The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday said that 170 candidates have submitted their nomination papers with returning officers (ROs) for election on Senate seats to be held on March 3, as the process of filing of nomination papers completed.
According to an official of ECP, 29 candidates have filed their nomination papers from Punjab, 39 from Sindh, 51 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 41 from Balochistan and 10 from federal capital. As many as 40 nomination papers have been submitted for Women seats while 10 for Non-Muslim and 33 nomination papers have been submitted for technocrats and ulema seats besides 87 for general seats. He said that the commission had extended the date for filing nomination papers for Senate election from February 13 to February 15 on written and verbal requests from various forums to facilitate the candidates. He said that the ECP had appointed five returning officers for Islamabad and four provinces.
He said that the polling will be held on March 3 on 48 seats, two in Islamabad, 11 each in Punjab and Sindh, and 12 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan that will fall vacant on the expiration of the term of the members.
The nominated candidates will be announced today, while the date for scrutiny of nomination papers will be February 17 to February 18. The last dates for filing of appeals against acceptance or rejection of nominations will be February 20 while the dates for disposal of appeals by the Tribunals will be February 23. The date of publication of revised list of candidates will be February 24 while the date for withdrawal of candidature will be February 25.
A total of 51 candidates are in the run for 12 seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Giving a break-up of 51 candidates, the ECP said 22 papers were filed for seven seats of general category; 11 candidates are in the arena for two seats of technocrats. For two seats of Women, 13 candidates have filed papers and for one seat of minority, five candidates are vying muscles. The ruling Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) has filed 13 candidates including Sania Nishtar, Sibli Faraz and Mohsin Aziz. Four candidates of Jamaat-e-Islami have filed nomination papers with the ECP from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Former MNA Dr Attaur Rehman and Inayat Begum filed nominations papers for general and women seats respectively and Dr Muhammad Iqbal Khalil for the technocrat seat. Provincial president of JI KP minority wing Javed Gul is a candidate for the minority seat.