RAWALPINDI, Dec 14: Sixteen candidates on Friday withdrew their nominations filed earlier to run in the January 8 elections on different National and provincial assemblies seats of Rawalpindi, officials said.

Those who pulled out of the election process were Bilal Yamin Satti of PML-Q for NA-50; Razaq A. Mirza of PML-N and Ghulam Habib Rana, an independent, for NA-54; Syed Aziz Hamid of JI for PP-12; Mohammad Zaheer, independent for PP-2; Dr Shah Din of PTI for PP-9; and Advocate Sardar Nasir Ali an Independent for PP-10.

Meanwhile nine aspirants withdrew their nominations as they could defend their cases against objections raised by their opponents with an election tribunal.

Friday was the last day of hearing such appeals.

Engineer Raja Qamrul Islam, a PML-Q candidate for PP-6, had filed appeal against the nomination of Mehmood Shaukat Bhatti, a PML-N nominee accusing him of possessing a fake degree.

Mr Bhatti had to withdraw his nomination as his lawyer could not satisfy the tribunal comprising Justice Abdul Shakoor Paracha and Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah of the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench.

Raja Waheed Mehfooz, an independent candidate from PP-14, also took his nomination papers back as he failed to provide enough evidence to support legality of his graduation degree.

Asim Majeed, another independent candidate, had challenged the validity of his educational qualification.

Akhtar Hussain also withdrew his nomination papers after he could not satisfy the appellant tribunal about the validity of his graduation. A returning officer had earlier on this ground rejected his nomination.

Former member parliament M.P. Bhandara also withdrew his appeal saying he was not given PML-Q ticket on the reserved seat of minorities.

While dismissing the appeal of Chaudhry Tasneem Nasir challenging the educational degree and the UC nazim status of his rival Chaudhry Qurban Hussain from PP-25 Jhelum, the tribunal allowed the latter to contest the polls on assurance that he would resign from the UC seat.

The appeal of Chaudhry Imtiaz Ahmad against the decision of returning officer about rejection of his nomination was also dismissed on the grounds of non-prosecution.

The tribunal asked Chaudhry Saqlain, an independent candidate from NA 62 Jehlum and PP-24, and Shams Haider from PP-27, to deposit the disputed amount of money with the returning officer before contesting the polls. Mr Saqlain was alleged to have been a defaulter of Crescent Bank and Mr Haider to have misappropriated Rs0.243 million as member district council Jhelum. Former federal minister Chaudhry Shahbaz Hussain had raised these objections.

The election tribunal allowed Raja Abdul Ghaffar, an independent candidate from NA-49, to contest the polls. His nomination was objected to for being an employee of Habib Bank Ltd. The tribunal asked the assistant advocate general (AAG) to obtain information regarding the status of HBL employees in this regard.