August 27, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 17,1423

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RAWALPINDI, Aug 26: A total of 82 candidates have filed their nomination papers for seven national assembly seats while 189 for 14 provincial assembly seats in Rawalpindi district, officials said here on Monday.

NA-54, which mainly comprises the cantonment areas, is the constituency from where highest number of persons (that is 18) filed their papers. Prominent among them are Raja Zafarul Haq, Zamurad Khan and Ijazul Haq.

Ten candidate’s filed their papers from NA-55, which covers city areas. The main aspirants from this constituency are Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Agha Riazul Islam, Sardar Tariq (PML-N) and Mr Ahmed (PML-Q).

Eleven candidates filed their papers from NA-56. Prominent among them are Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Sardar Shaukat Hayat and Dr Afzal Ezaz.

Eight candidates have filed their papers for one Murree seat (NA-50) where major competition is likely between Shahid Khaqqan Abbassi and Ghulam Murtaza Satti.

On a Gujar Khan seat (NA-51), 13 candidates have filed their papers. Prominent among them are Raja Pervez Ashraf, Tahirul Qadri, PML-N’s Khurshid Zaman and PML-Q’s Shaukat Aziz Bhatti.

The contest on NA-52 seat would be between two leaguers, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Nasir Nawaz. The PPPP candidate, who has filed papers for this seat, is Dr Shahzad.

The battle in NA-53 will be fought among 14 candidates. The PPPP has to decide between Sarwar Khan and Shoaib Mumtaz, PML-Q’s man would be Riaz Shah and Chaudhry Nisar would be the PML-N candidate.

The number of candidates on the different provincial seats are PP-1 (17), PP-2 (15), PP-3 (13), PP-4 (9), PP-5 (15), PP-6 (8), PP-7 (16), PP-8 (15), PP-9 (11), PP-10 (10), PP-11 (11), PP- 12 (19), PP-13 (14) and PP-14 (16).

It may be mentioned that on Monday, which was the last day for the filing of nomination papers, 22 candidates filed their papers for national and provincial assembly seats.

Most of them were independent candidates and the only prominent person among them was Shahid Khaqqan Abbassi.

Mr Abbassi filed his nominations in the afternoon. He was accompanied by a large number of his supporters on this occasion.

Others, who filed their nominations, were Hafiz Hussain (PP- 10), Chaudhry Muhammad Sharif (PP-10), Inamul Haq Siddiqi (PP-11), Chaudhry Wajahat (PP-12), Hafeez Khokhar of Shan-e-Pakistan Party (NA-55), Raja Sikandar Mehmmod (PP-14), Raja Javed (PP-2), Muhammad Bilal (PP-2), Tariq Mehmood Murtaza (PP-2), Raja Tahir Mehmood (PP-1), Khurshid Satti (PP-1), Raja Sikandar (PP-1), Muhammad Ali Qureshi (NA-54), Raja Arshad (PP-6), Chaudhary Wajahat Ikram (NA-55), Chaudhary Hanif (PP-11) and Shahid Khaqqan Abbasi (NA-50).

Scrutiny of the nomination papers would start from Tuesday and continue till September 2. The candidates may withdraw their nominations from till September 14.

A Reporter adds from Islamabad: A total of 46 candidates have filed nomination papers for two national assembly seats in the federal capital.

On the last date on Monday, six more candidates filed their nomination papers.

Those who filed their papers from NA-48 on Monday included Munawar Mughal, Col Sayed Younas Ali Raza (retired), Dr Muhammad Nasir Ansari and Allama Al-Sheikh Zahid Asghar Siddiqui.

Those who filed their nomination papers from NA-49 are Sayed Ali Jaffar Zaidi, and Sardar Ghulam Mustafa.