RAWALPINDI: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) on Saturday failed to finalise its candidates for the cantonment board elections and referred the list to the party leadership for a final decision.

The 13-member committee met on Saturday with Chaudhry Tanveer Khan in the chair to finalise the candidates for the PML-N-supported Khushal Pakistan Group.

More than 231 candidates applied for the 20 seats of the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment board elections scheduled to be held on April 25. However, the committee decided to announce the candidates on Monday after getting a go-ahead from the party leadership.

A senior party leader told Dawn that the committee faced problems in finalising the candidates as there were more than 10 candidates for each ward. “There are total 20 seats and all the candidates came with references of federal, provincial ministers and party office-bearers.”

He said the local leaders of the party feared that if a ticket was given to one aspirant, the others may join the PTI.

“We had no option but to involve the party leadership for the final decision that could be acceptable to the candidates,” he said.

Former MNA Malik Shakil Awan told Dawn that the committee would take time to finalise the candidates. “We are not in a hurry to field the candidates,” he said.

Chaudhry Tanveer told Dawn that the committee completed the interviews of the candidates and would meet to finalise the list on Sunday.

He said the list of the candidates would be sent to the party leadership for a final decision.

The names of the candidates would be announced on Monday.

On the other hand, the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards would start receiving the nomination papers from 11am to 3pm on Sunday.

The nomination papers will be submitted to the returning officers till March 31.

Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) Executive Officer Fahim Zafar Khan and RCB additional cantonment executive officer Tayyaba Sindhu, Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) executive officer Rana Khalil Ahmed and additional cantonment executive officer Jawad Butt are the returning officers.

Both the cantonment boards have 10 wards each and one returning officer will conduct elections in five wards.

In the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board, total 215 aspirants collected nomination papers while 162 people got the forms for the Chaklala Cantonment board elections.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

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