ISLAMABAD: Over 4,000 candidates for the upcoming polls are out of the race as their nomination papers have been rejected by the respective returning officers, revealed the data released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday.

Wednesday was the last day for filing appeals with election tribunals against the rejection or acceptance of nomination papers. The tribunals will have seven days to decide the appeals after which a final list of candidates will be published.

The strength of the National Assembly is 342, Punjab 371, Sindh 168, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 124 and Balochistan 65.

A total of 8,059 nomination papers had been filed for 272 general seats of the National Assembly from across the country, out of which 1,209 were rejected.

More than half of the nomination papers submitted for the NA’s general seats were from Punjab; out of 4,076 papers filed from this province, 620 stand rejected.

As regards other provinces, 388 papers out of the total 2,007 filed in Sindh were rejected; 106 were rejected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa out of 945; 51 papers were rejected out of 445 submitted from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas; 25 rejected in Balochistan out of 439, and returning officers threw out 19 nomination papers out of the total 147 filed from the Federal Capital.

In all, 19,016 nomination papers had been filed for general seats in the four provincial assemblies. According to the data, 9,583 forms were filed for general seats in the Punjab Assembly, of which 1,205 were rejected; 1,067 were rejected out of 5,213 filed for the Sindh Assembly; 285 were rejected out of 2,572 filed for the KP Assembly and the ROs rejected 230 nomination forms out of 1,648 submitted for the Balochistan Assembly.

A total of 360 nomination papers had been received for reserved seats for women in the NA, of which 105 were rejected. Likewise, 162 papers had been filed for reserved seats for non-Muslims in the NA, of which 93 were rejected.

In all, 826 nomination papers had been filed for reserved seats for women in the four provincial assemblies, out of which 269 were rejected.

Likewise, 307 nomination papers for reserved seats for minorities in the provincial assemblies had been filed, of which 139 were rejected.