ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will begin the two-day process of hearing appeals against its decision to accept or reject nomination papers of candidates for upcoming Senate elections from Monday (today) amid allegations of pre-poll rigging.

A day before the start of the process, the main opposition PPP and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) accused the ECP of conniving with the ruling PML-N to rig the polls slated for March 5.

Know more: ECP okays all 28 senate nomination papers from Sindh

Another opposition party, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), has asked the ECP to take notice of reports about the “sale and purchase” of votes for the elections.

The opposition parties are particularly critical of the ECP’s controversial decision to allow transfer of candidates’ votes from one province to another place after the announcement of the election schedule. They term it an open violation of election laws.

PTI’s Information Secretary Dr Shireen Mazari said on Sunday that her party’s leaders would meet the chief election commissioner to lodge complaint about violation of rules by the election staff to “benefit” the ruling party.

She alleged that “secret letters” had been sent to returning officers as was done before the 2013 general elections.

She voiced concern over the ECP’s decision to allow a PML-N candidate convicted in the Supreme Court attack case to contest the election.

The PPP candidate on a reserved seat from Islamabad, Nargis Faiz Malik, said she would file an appeal against the ECP’s decision to accept the papers of PML-N’s Raheela Magsi, who belongs to Sindh but has filed papers from Islamabad.

Ms Malik said she had raised objection over Ms Magsi’s eligibility but it was “readily” rejected by the returning officer. The election officer gave her a three-page order as soon as she finished her arguments, she alleged. “This shows that he had already written the order.”

Though section 20 of the Electoral Rolls Act 1974 bars the transfer of vote from one constituency to another after the announcement of the election schedule, two candidates of PML-N have got this done to contest the Senate polls from Islamabad. They include PML-N Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, who belongs to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but is contesting election for a general seat from the capital.

On the last day of scrutiny of papers, it was disclosed by the returning officer for Islamabad, Sher Afgan, that under a decision made by the ECP, section 20 of the Electoral Rolls Act 1974 would not apply to the Senate elections.

The revelation was made when the eligibility of Ms Magsi was challenged by Nargis Faiz Malik of PPP. Ms Malik said in her application that Ms Magsi had a domicile of Sindh and had remained a district nazim in the province. Her vote had illegally been transferred from Tando Allahyar to Islamabad, Ms Malik alleged.

Ms Magsi had told the election official that she had transferred her vote from Tando Allahyar to Islamabad as she owned a property in the capital.

A PPP candidate on a general seat, Raja Imran Ashraf, said he was consulting his lawyers to file an appeal against the ECP’s decision to accept the papers of Mr Jhagra.

Mr Jhagra claimed that he had applied for the vote transfer before the announcement of the election schedule.

He said such practice had been seen in the past and that he remembered that the vote of a JI candidate had been transferred even after his election.

As many as 144 candidates are left in the field for elections to 52 Senate seats, scheduled for March 5, after papers of 38 were rejected during scrutiny.

The majority of those whose papers were rejected were independent candidates, including 23 from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

In all, 43 nomination papers have been filed for four seats for Fata, and 23 of them have been rejected.

In Punjab, 15 papers have been filed for seven general seats, five of which have been rejected. The papers of PML-N’s Saud Majeed, whose name was among the contenders for the post of Punjab governor, have also been rejected on the ground that he is a loan defaulter Objections were raised also against the eligibility of PML-N president Raja Zafarul Haq, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid and retired General Abdul Qayyum, but were rejected by the returning officer.

The four nomination papers for the only general seat for Islamabad and five papers for one reserved seat for women have been cleared.

In Balochistan, three of the papers filed for seven general seats have been rejected. These include the papers of JUI-F spokesman Jan Mohammad Achakzai.

According to him, his “seconder” could not appear before the returning officer at the time of scrutiny “for security reasons”. He will change the “seconder” during the appeal process.

In KP, three papers, one each for a general, technocrats and minority seat, have been rejected whereas the seven papers filed for two seats reserved for women have been approved.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2015

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