PESHAWAR: The returning officer has rejected 291 of the 423 nomination papers filed for the seats reserved for women and non-Muslims in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and National Assembly from the province due to the absence of the names of those candidates from the priority lists submitted by political parties to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

According to the details released by the ECP, provincial election commissioner Pir Maqbool Ahmad, who is the returning officer for the reserved seats in KP, has accepted nomination papers of 132 candidates from among a total of 423 papers submitted for these seats.

Under the law, no independent candidate can contest against the seats reserved for women and non-Muslims and it is a pre-condition that the names of those submitting nomination papers must be available in priority lists submitted by the political parties.

Names of candidates found missing from priority lists given by political parties

The provincial election commissioner is the returning officer for three categories of reserved seats, including nine for women in the National Assembly from KP, 22 for women in the KP Assembly, and three for non-Muslims in the KP Assembly. A total of 262 papers were filed for reserved seats for women in KP Assembly, 88 for women seats in NA, and 73 for non-Muslim seats in KP Assembly.

The returning officer has accepted nomination papers of 35 candidates for the seats reserved for women in the NA, 77 for seats reserved for women in KP assembly, and 20 for non-Muslim seats.

An official of the ECP told Dawn that the papers of those whose names were not mentioned in the priority lists of political parties stood rejected outright.

According to Article 51 (6) (d) of the Constitution, the members to the seats reserved for women, which are allocated to a province, shall be elected through proportional representation system of political parties’ lists of candidates on the basis of total number of general seats secured by each political party from the province concerned in the National Assembly.

The same condition applies to the filling of seats reserved for women and non-Muslims in the KP Assembly.

The candidates whose papers were accepted were mentioned in the lists of political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Awami National Party, Qaumi Watan Party, Pakistan Muslim League and Pakistan Rah-i-Haq party.

GENERAL SEATS: The returning officers have declared 2609 candidates eligible for contesting the general elections against 39 seats of the National Assembly and 99 seats of the KP Assembly in 25 districts of the province.

According to ECP, nomination papers of 690 candidates were declared valid for 39 seats of National Assembly in the province, whereas 1919 papers were accepted for 99 seats of the KP Assembly.

A total of 726 candidates had filed papers for the National Assembly general seats out of which those of 36 were rejected. Similarly, 2062 candidates had filed papers out of which 690 were rejected.

The highest number of candidates is 364 in Peshawar. Of them, 68 are contesting elections for five NA seats and 296 for 14 provincial assembly seats.

Similarly, 224 candidates were declared eligible (64 for NA and 160 for PA) to contest in Swat against three NA and eight provincial assembly seats; whereas 178 candidates (37 for NA and 141 for PA) were cleared for contesting in Mardan against three NA and eight provincial assembly seats.

Chitral has one NA and PA seat each.

The returning officer has cleared 16 candidates for NA seat and 25 for PA seat.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018