Election nominations: Candidates seek lawyers’ help on forms

Charges of Rs500 to Rs1,000 for completion of paperwork.

LAHORE:

Lawyers at the District and Sessions Court received a rush of clients seeking their services to fill nomination forms for the ahead of the deadline, March 31.

Lawyers have been charging between Rs500 and Rs1,000 to fill out forms. Some clerks have also been offering the service, at rates of Rs300 to Rs500.

“I want to be certain that my forms won’t be rejected, which is why I hired a lawyer to do it,” said Muhammad Ali, who aims to run for the PP-146 seat in Lahore.

“It is legal work that I’m not really comfortable with,” said Muhammad Aslam, another aspirant for the same seat.

Advocate Hafiz Mohsin said that most of the people who had come to him for help with filling their nomination forms were independent candidates. “Many of them can’t even read very well so they want to make sure they are meeting all the requirements,” he said.

Advocate Chaudhry Moazzam Bashir said that rates varied from lawyer to lawyer and depending on how much the client was willing to pay. “There is bargaining going on. The price is mostly Rs500 to Rs1,000. For that we fill in the forms and attach all the documents required by the Election Commission,” he said.

Muhammad Jameel, a visitor to the courts, expressed concern about the quality of candidates seeking to run in the elections. He said: “If they can’t even read, or fill in their nomination forms themselves, how can they run the affairs of the state?”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2013.