KARACHI, Jan 16: With only six days left for filing nomination papers for the 22 Senate seats from Sindh, the Election Commission had received only 11 nomination papers — nine for the general seats (14) and two for reserved seats (eight), by Thursday evening. The reserved seats are divided between women (four) and technocrat/ulema (four).

The last date for filing the nomination papers has already been extended from Jan 15 to 22 though the polling is to be held as scheduled — on Feb 24 in all the four provinces and on Feb 27 in the federal capital and Fata areas. The last date for the withdrawal of the nomination papers is Feb 7 and the final list of candidates would be published the next day.

Except for the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, all the parliamentary parties have finalized the lists of their candidates but most of them are yet to file the nomination papers.

Those who have filed their nomination papers for general seats are Allama Abbas Komaili, Prof Saeed Siddiqui, Malik Faisal Gabol, Noman Sehgal and Ahmad Ali of MQM, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah and Mir Hasan Khoso of National Alliance, Justice (r) Abdul Razzaq Thaheem of PML-F and Maqbool Ahmad Shaikh of PML-Q. For the reserved seats, Nighat Mirza (women seat) and Prof Saeed Siddiqui (technocrat seat) have filed their nomination papers.

SCRUTINY: The Provincial Election Commissioner, Ahmed Ali Halepota, who is also the Returning Officer for the Senate Elections 2003, has notified here on Thursday that owing to changes in the process of the upcoming Senate election, the scrutiny of nomination papers has been rescheduled, adds PPI.