KARACHI, Sept 25: With Thursday noon – the deadline for filing nomination papers for contesting the Oct 6 presidential election – fast approaching, 11 more aspirants on Tuesday collected the prescribed forms, bringing the number of potential candidates for the election from Sindh to 25.

According to the provincial election commission, since the announcement of the election schedule on Sept 20, a total of 25 nomination forms were acquired by various people, including two prominent personalities, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Faryal Talpur, sister of Asif Zardari.

Those who collected the forms on Tuesday are: Dr Arbab Rahim, Saleem-ul-Azhar, Riaz Hussain Chandio, Syed Ahmad Sohail, Mohammad Azam Kamal, Mohammad Iqbal Babar, Naushad Imrani, Anwar Samad, Rafique Ahmad, Shakil Ahmad and Mirza Salim Baig.

Earlier on Monday Dr Nazeer Ali Mallah, M. Gulzar Khaliqui, Mirza Asif Baig, Eng Abdullah Khan Achakzai, Mohammad Tahir Khan and Qazi M.A. Brohi and Ms Faryal Talpur had received the forms while on Saturday those who had received the forms were Sohail Ahmad, Amir Ali Pattiwala, Lt-Col (retd) Mohammad Tariq Jan, Mohammad Usman, Saghir Hussain Ansari, Syed Shaukat Ali and Mian Nazeer-ur-Rehman.

Sindh Provincial Election Commissioner Chaudhry Qamar-uz-Zaman told Dawn that it was not necessary that the person who had collected the form from the election commission should also be the candidate as anyone could collect the form.

Likewise, he said, it was not necessary that the candidate should submit the form in person as the duly filled form could be submitted to the returning officer by the proposer, seconder or an authorised attorney.

Political analysts commenting on the form acquired by Dr Arbab Rahim said that the chief minister had acquired the form to nominate President Gen Musharraf as a candidate from Sindh in line with the policy of the ruling PML, which had decided to file the nomination papers of Gen Musharraf as a candidate from all four provinces to give the impression that their presidential candidate is a true symbol of the federation, who commands backing from the legislatures of all four provinces.