KARACHI, Sept 16: With the rejection of nomination papers of two candidates, ten candidates are in the run, out of 12, for the Karachi City nazim’s slot. The papers were rejected on technical grounds by the returning officer on Friday.

During scrutiny of nomination papers in the third phase of local government elections-2005, the returning officer for the city district government rejected a total of 11 nomination papers for want of formalities in other categories of candidates.

Others whose papers were rejected, include six candidates on reserved seats of peasants/worker, four on women seats and one on minority seat.

The appeals can be filed by Sept 18 which would be disposed of by Sept 20 and candidates can withdraw from the race by Sept 21. The final list of candidates would be made public on Sept 22.

The two candidates whose are out of the contest now are Habibuddin Junedi of Awam Dost panel, backed by Pakistan People’s Party, and Khwaja Tariq Nazeer of Watan Nawaz panel, backed by Pakistan Muslim League-N as during scrutiny of papers on Friday, Mr Junedi was not present while in the case of Khawaja Tariq Nazeer, his seconder had also signed another nomination paper for the nazim’s slot.

The 10 candidates who were left in the field are: Syed Mustafa Kamal, MA Jalil, Syed Waseem Akhtar and Babar Khan Ghauri of Haq Parast panel, Fauzia Wahab of Awam Dost panel, Syed Zahid Ali of Watan Nawaz, Dr Mohammad Hanif and Rizwan Ikram independent and former Nazim Naimatullah Khan and Muslim Pervez from Shehri Ittehad panel.

Against the 59 reserved seats of women, a total number of 174 nominations were filed and after rejection of four papers, 170 candidates are in the field.

The form of Nasreen Niazi was rejected for forged signatures in the column of proposer, while Zahida Perveen and Salma Imam Buksh’s papers were rejected as their proposer and seconder, respectively, were not present at the time of scrutiny. The fourth candidate whose nomination papers were rejected was Ms Yasmeen as her papers were not signed by her proposer.

Against the nine reserved seats of peasants/workers, a total number of 95 candidates had filed nomination papers, but after scrutiny six papers were rejected, leaving 89 candidates in the field.

The candidates whose papers were rejected are: Abdul Ghani, Abdul Razzaq, Ayub Khan Jadoon, Zuber Ali, Mohammad Sharif Khaskheli and Javed Ahmad. The last two candidates failed to deposit the fee while others’ papers were rejected on technical grounds.

In the category of minorities, there were 45 candidates in the field for nine seats. In the scrutiny, Mangal Sharma’s papers were rejected, leaving 44 candidates in the run.

Out of 112 nominations filed against 18 slots of town nazims, four papers were rejected, leaving 108 valid nominations.

Likewise, against 59 reserved seats of women, there were 194 candidates, but in the scrutiny, three nominations were rejected, leaving 191 in the run.