QUETTA: Hundreds of candidates have filed nomination papers for 14 seats of the National Assembly in the province and 51 general seats of the Balochistan Assembly for the coming general elections.
According to provincial officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 325 candidates submitted nomination papers for the NA seats and many more for the provincial assembly till filing of this report on Sunday, the last day for submitting the nomination papers. The figure could go up because the deadline for filing nomination papers was extended by eight hours to 12 midnight.
The maximum number of nomination papers — 40 — were filed for N-260 (Quetta-Chagai), followed by NA-259 (Quetta) with 34 nominations.
Around 343 candidates filed nomination papers for six seats of the Balochistan Assembly from the Quetta district.
The ECP sources said 70 nomination papers were filed for PB-2 (Quetta-2), 63 for PB-6 (Quetta-6), 60 for PB-1 (Quetta-1) and 52 each for PB-3 (Quetta-3) and PB-4 (Quetta-4).
Important personalities who have filed their nomination papers for the NA seats include Mehmood Khan Achakzai, chairman of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP); Sardar Akhtar Mengal, president of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M); Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F); Dr Ayatullah Durrani, provincial general secretary of the PPP-P; Sheikh Jaffar Khan Mandokhel, Sardar Masood Luni and Mir Karim Nousherwani of PML-Q and Dr Abdul Hai Baloch of the National Party (NP).
Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed filed their nomination papers as independent candidates.
Other politicians who submitted nomination papers include Abdul Karim Khetran, Abdul Wahid Shahwani, Sardar Kamal Khan Bangulzai, Rajab Ali Rind and Abdul Khaliq Rind (NP); Abdul Rahim Mandokhel, Mohammad Eisa Roshan, Ahmed Jan Khan and Akhtar Shah Kadezai (PkMAP); Mir Zahoor Khosa and Shahzain Bugti (Jamhoori Watan Party); Hafiz Hamdullah (JUI-F); Abdul Qayyum Baloch (BNP-A); Mir Orangzeb Jamali (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf); Qahar Khan Wadan; Malik Osman Khan; and Haji Rozzuddin Kakar.