KARACHI, Sept 27: Out of the 15 nomination papers which were filed here on Thursday by 14 aspirants to contest the Oct 6 presidential election, only two candidates could find a proposer and a seconder from the electoral college, comprising members of the senate and the national and provincial assemblies.

The three forms, in which the initial requirement of having a proposer and seconder was met, were submitted by Faryal Talpur (two forms) and Riaz Hussain Chandio.

The nomination of Faryal Talpur, who is the covering candidate for PPP presidential nominee Makhdoom Amin Fahim, was proposed by Senator Farooq H. Naek and MPA Ahmed Ali Khan Jalbani, while on the second form her name was proposed by MPA from Nawabshah Ghulam Qadir Chandio and MNA from Nawabshah Azra Afzal Pechuho.

The other candidate whose form met the initial condition is Riaz Hussain Chandio, whose nomination was proposed by Senator from Larkana Dr Mehmood Soomro and seconded by MNA from Larkana Khalid Iqbal.

According to sources, in the remaining 12 nomination forms eight candidates could not find any proposer or seconder to sign their papers. They are Mirza Asif Baig, Dr Nawaz Ali Mallah, Syed Sakhawat Ali, Obaidullah Achakzai, Amir Ali Pattiwala, Shakeel Ahmed, Naushad Ahmed Umrani, and Mohammad Iqbal Babar.

Though the remaining four forms – submitted by Haider Ali Mulji, Mohammad Azam Kamal, Chaudhry Faqir Hussain Ansari, and Syed Habib Ahmed – were either signed by a proposer or seconder, it was not clear whether these persons were members of the electoral college as there was no mention of their constituency.

Some 33 aspirants had obtained nomination forms till Wednesday including Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim. But by noon Thursday, which was the deadline for submitting the nomination forms, no one other than the abovementioned 15 papers were received in Karachi by Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad.

All the forms which were received in Karachi on Thursday were sent to Islamabad, where, according to the second schedule of the constitution, scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held by the chief election commissioner on Sept 29.