Election body extends date for filing of nomination papers
Shibli says democracy derives strength from free, fair and transparent elections and opposition’s stance against open balloting in Senate polls is illogical and beyond comprehension
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) extended the date of submitting nomination papers by the contesting aspirants of the Senate elections till Feb.15, with the major political parties having decided their candidates, fuelling controversies in certain cases.
The Pakistan Tehrik-e-insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulemae Islam-fazl (JUI-F) have firmed up their nominees for the March electoral exercise.
The candidates include bigwigs like former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court on June 19, 2002 for contempt of court, PPP’S Farhatullah Babar and Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Shibli Faraz, the incumbent ministers for finance and information, respectively.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry announced that the party has finalised the names of most of its candidates ater a parliamentary board meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhuto Zardari also used his official Twiter account to post the list of party leaders nominated to contest the elections. He nominated Farhatullah Babar and Yousuf Raza Gilani as joint candidates of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) from KP and Islamabad, respectively.
The rest of the candidates – nine in total – will contest election from Sindh, the PPP’S political bastion. These include Jam Mehtab Dehar, Taj Haider, Saleem Mandviwala, Sherry Rehman, Farooq H Naek, Shahadat Awan, Dr Karim Khawaja, Palwashah Khan and Khairul Nisa Mughal.
Jam Mehtab Dahar served as former Sindh education and health minister while Taj Haider is a senior PPP stalwart who has also served as a senator in the past.
Mandviwala is the incumbent Senate deputy chairman while Sherry Rehman is the PPP’S parliamentary leader in the Senate. Mandviwala and Sherry will complete their current six-year-term on March 11.
The party has nominated Farooq H Naek, Shahadat Awan and Dr Karim Khawaja on the technocrat’s seats. Naek has served as the Senate chairman while Awan earlier served as Sindh prosecutor general.
It has given its tickets to Palwashah Khan and Khairul Nisa Mughal on women’s seat while Rukhsana Shah is a covering candidate.
Palwashah hails from Chakwal district and served earlier as an MP; Khairul Nisa served as a provincial legislator from Mirpurkhas and while Rukhsana Shah is also a former provincial lawmaker.
From Punjab, the party has nominated only one candidate, Azeemul Haq Minhas. The party leaders said they would get the support from opposition parties to get Minhas selected from the Punjab Assembly.
The PML-N also finalised the names of its candidates for the five Senate seats of Punjab – three general, a technocrat and a woman seat. However, the party surprisingly dropped the names of two party leaders earlier regarded as strong candidates.
Pervaiz Rashid, Mushahudullah Khan and Professor Sajid Mir will contest election on the general seats. Barrister Sadia Abbasi will represent the PML-N on the women’s seat while Advocate Aazam Nazir Tarrar will contest for the technocrat seat in Punjab.
The KP chapter of the PML-N will name the final contestants ater consultation at the party’s provincial level organisation.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said democracy derived strength from free, fair and transparent elections and opposition’s stance against open balloting in Senate elections was illogical and beyond comprehension.
Talking to media ater submiting his nomination papers for Senate election at Provincial Election Commission, he said the government was striving to devise an inclusive mechanism so that no one could dare to raise finger on credibility and impartiality of elections results in future.
He said free, fair and transparent elections provided moral ground to flourish democracy and strengthen democratic institutions and the government’s electoral reforms would help ensure credibility, impartiality and transparency of elections including senate polls.