KARACHI: 160 poll papers for reserved seats accepted
KARACHI, Dec 3: The provincial election commission has accepted 160 nomination papers filed against the seats reserved for women and non-Muslims in the provincial and national assemblies.
This was stated by the provincial election commissioner, Chaudhry Qamaruz Zaman, here on Monday. As many as 100 nomination papers filed against seats reserved for women and minorities have been rejected, thus marking the completion of a crucial phase of the Jan 8 general election.
Mr Zaman said that against the 29 seats reserved for women in the Sindh Assembly, 87 nomination papers had been accepted, while 47 got rejected, mostly due to the fact that the names of those hoping to make it to the provincial assembly were not included in their respective party’s list.
Similarly, the ECP has accepted 39 nomination papers of those aspiring to represent Sindh in the National Assembly and rejected 25 poll papers again on the same ground that their names were not included in their party’s list.
Giving details of the scrutiny of reserved seats for non-Muslims, Mr Zaman said that 34 nomination papers had been accepted against nine seats in the Sindh Assembly, while 28 had been rejected.
He said that out of the 11 pending cases, mostly for want of documents of verification, 10 had been accepted while one had been rejected.
Final list of candidates
Mr Zaman said that candidates’ lists were provided by all the political parties to the ECP by Nov 26, 2007, making it easy for the Election Commission to countercheck claims of the candidates.
He said that the final list of accepted candidates against the general seats of the National and the provincial assemblies would be made available by Dec 4.
Mr Zaman pointed out that appeals against nominations could be filed at 13 election tribunals from Dec 4 to 7, while decisions would be taken between Dec 8 and 14.
Withdrawals and symbols
He said that the date for withdrawal of nomination papers was Dec 15 and party symbols would be allotted to the respective candidates on Dec 16 on the basis of their party affiliations.
The candidates for general seats will be required to submit the party candidate list indicating their names before the allotment of symbols.
The provincial election commissioner said that the number of candidates in the upcoming election was more than the previous polls in 2002.
He said that the electoral list had been computerised with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme.
The UNDP also provided 430,000 transparent ballot boxes, besides imparting training to the staff of the election commission all across the country.
He also stressed the need for computerisation of the function of the election commission and electronic linkage of all its offices in Pakistan.—APP
