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KARACHI, July 24: Returning officers of four, out of five, zones of the city district Karachi on Sunday completed scrutiny of nomination papers filed for the first phase of the local bodies election scheduled for August 18.
Scrutiny of nomination papers submitted with the returning officers of West zone was under way till filing this report at around midnight.
The ROs of four zones — Central, South, East and Malir – carried out the scrutiny process over the past two days. They rejected a total of 210 nominations on technical grounds while 6,929 appeared valid in all respect. The zone-wise detail of the scrutiny is as follows:
Central zone: Papers received 2,081; found valid 2,040;
rejected 41.
South zone: Papers received 1,697; found valid 1,624;
rejected 73.
East zone: Papers received 2,510; found valid 2,448;
rejected 62.
Malir zone: Papers received 1,751; found valid 1,717;
rejected 34.
Appeals against rejection of nomination papers can be filed on Monday (July 25) and the decision thereof would be taken by Wednesday (July 27).
Election in the first phase is being held in 11 districts of Sindh.
In the second phase, the local bodies election will be held in the remaining 12 districts for which the ROs concerned will receive nomination papers till July 27.
MINORITIES: The Sindh government has increased the number of minorities’ seats by 133 in the 12 districts under the Rule-87 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2005.
The Rule reads: “In a union council, where the population of minorities is in excess of 10 per cent of the total population of the union, reserved seats for minority communities shall be increased by reallocating the seats from Muslim general seats and the seats reserved for peasants/workers and peasants/workers women.”
The increase in seats was notified following Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Abdul Hammed Dodger’s directive to the Sindh government during a meeting of Election Commission held here last week.
The increase in minorities’ seats in the 12 districts by virtue of the rule is in addition to the one reserved seat in each UC. Detail of the increase is as follows: City District Karachi (Jamshed Town) 2, District Jacobabad 2, Tharparkar 30, Sanghar 17, Umerkot 24, Mirpurkhas 28, Badin 15, Jamshoro 1, Matiari 2, Kandhkot 1, Tando Allahyar 8, and Tando Mohammad Khan 3.
Meanwhile, EC Secretary Kanwar Mohammad Dilshad has stated that the candidates intending to contest local bodies election on any seat will have to produce his/her original computerized NIC or old NIC at the time of filing nomination papers with the returning officer concerned and also at the time of scrutiny of the papers.
