Final list: 44 to vie for NA-120 seat

PML-N’s Kulsoom Nawaz and PTI’s Yasmin Rashid are the main contestants

LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday published the final list of candidates in the NA-120 (Lahore-III) by-election, according to which a total of 44 candidates are in the run for the contest scheduled for September 17.

Originally there were 55 candidates in the fray, but 11 of them pulled out on Friday – the last day for withdrawal of nomination papers. Most of those pulling out were covering candidates for nominees of several political parties.

The ECP had received nomination papers of 61 contestants for the seat that fell vacant after the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister on corruption charges.

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The main contest is expected between PML-N’s Begum Kulsoom Nawaz and the PTI’s Dr Yasmin Rashid. The PPP has fielded Faisal Mir while the JI’s Ziauddin is also among the notable contestants.

As per the ECP statistics, as many as 321,786 voters are registered in NA-120, and there are a total of 220 polling stations. The ECP has decided to deploy army in and outside the polling stations.

Meanwhile, Maryam Nawaz, daughter of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, formally started campaigning for her mother Kulsoom Nawaz, who has been in London for cancer treatment.

Maryam and other party leaders met the party workers at the PML-N office in Model Town.

PML-N leader Khawaja Ahmad Hasan said Maryam would address small gatherings and begin her door-to-door campaign after Eid.

According to party leaders, Maryam is well aware of the political dynamics of NA-120 as she had already run a successful campaign for her father back in 2013, and it would be no different this time.

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According to party workers from NA 120, it was her campaign that earned Sharif a victory margin of 40,000 votes in 2013 against his rival PTI candidate. They said according to figures compiled in 2013, there were a total of 295,826 voters of which 129,112 were female voters.

The leaders said that with Begum Kulsoom as candidate and Maryam as her campaigner, much of the votes from women would go to the PML-N.

Meanwhile, Hasan has rejected the likelihood of Begum Kulsoom withdrawing from the race, adding that she would contest the election whereas Mian Nouman would continue to be her covering candidate.