KARACHI: The scrutiny of the 47 nomination papers filed by 44 aspirants against the 12 Senate seats from Sindh was completed on Monday, the last day for the exercise. Of them, 42 nominations were found correct and accepted. Five were rejected on technical grounds — two of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and three of the Pak Sarzameen Party — leaving 39 candidates in the field.

The scrutiny of five candidates of the Pakistan Peoples Party against reserved seats was done and all nominations were found correct and accepted. They were Dr Sikander Mandhro, Taj Haider, Dr Yunus Hyder Soomro, Anwar Lal Deen and Anthony Naveed.

According to Provincial Election Commissioner of Sindh Yusuf Khattak, appeals against the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers could be filed, which would be disposed of by the tribunal by Feb 15. However, the final list of candidates for the March 3 Senate polls — seven general, two women, two technocrat and ulema and one non-Muslim seats — would be announced on Feb 19 after the withdrawal date.

Final list of candidates to be announced on 19th

After the scrutiny, against the seven general seats 21 aspirants left in the field are: Mian Raza Rabbani, Maula Bux Chandio, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Syed Muhammad Ali Shah Jamote, Ayaz Ahmed Mahar , Murtaza Wahab, Dost Ali Jesser, Muhammad Qasim, Javed Ahmed Nayab of the PPP; Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah of the PML-F, Sarfraz Jatoi of the PML-N, Muhammad Asif Khan (independent), Muhammad Kamran Khan Tessori, Ahmad Chinoy and Farhan Chishti of the MQM (Farooq Sattar group); Syed Aminul Haque, Muhammad Farogh Naseem of the MQM (Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui group), Dr Sagheer Ahmed, Mubashir Imam and Anees Ahmad Advocate of the PSP.

Against the two women seats, out of nine candidates the nomination papers of Sofia Saeed Shah of the PSP were rejected and eight were left in the field. They were: Quratulain Marri, Humera Alwani, Keshoo Bai and Nida Khuhro of the PPP; Nasreen Jalil, Kishwer Zehra of the MQM-P (KM); Mangla Sharma and Nikhat Shakeel Khan of the MQM-P (FS).

Of the 11 nominations filed against the two seats of technocrat and ulema, papers of Sofia Saeed Shah of the PSP and Ahmed Chinoy of the MQM-P (FS) were rejected, leaving nine candidates in the field. They were: Sikandar Ali Mandhro, Rukhsana Zuberi, Dr Yunus Hyder Soomro and Taj Haider of the PPP; Dr Abdul Qadir Khanzada and Muhammad Farogh Naseem of the MQM-P (KM), Muhammad Najeeb Haroon of the PTI and Syed Ali Raza Abidi and retired Justice Hasan Feroz of the MQM-P (FS).

On the lone seat of non-Muslims, papers of all the four aspirants were found correct. They were: Anwar Lal Deen and Anthony Naveed of the PPP; Mohan Manjiani of the PSP and Sanjay Perwani of the PTI.

Pakistan Peoples Party, which has filed nominations of its 20 candidates, emerged the only party whose all papers were found correct and accepted during the scrutiny.

According to the election commission, of the total five rejected nominations, two aspirants were on general seats — Aamir Waliuddin Chishti from the MQM-P and Hassan Sabir from the PSP. Two nominations were rejected for technocrat seats — Sofia Saeed Shah of the PSP and Ahmad Chinoy of the MQM-P — and one candidate whose form was rejected against reserved seat for women was Sofia Saeed Shah of the PSP.

Talking to the media, Commissioner Yusuf Khattak said that Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had been accepted as convener of the MQM-P as he had a majority of two-thirds and the party was registered in his name. Meanwhile MQM-P leader Dr Farogh Naseem said the “real” MQM office was in Bahadurabad and the MQM was registered not in the name of any person but as the MQM and not in the name of Farooq Sattar. He also denied that any government servant was a member of the coordination committee. In reply to a question, he said if Farooq Sattar wanted to initiate any legal action, it was his right.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who came to the election commission with Mian Raza Rabbani, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Farooq H. Naek and others ministers for scrutiny of the PPP candidates on the reserved seats of technocrats and ulema and women seats, spoke to the media outside the election commission office.

In reply to a question, Mr Shah said the PPP would field its candidates against all 12 seats of the Senate from Sindh.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2018