Nomination papers scrutiny ends today

Imran rejects allegations of PJDP in written reply

ISLAMABAD: Returning officers (ROs) will conclude today (Tuesday) scrutiny of credentials of over 21,000 candidates in the run for the July 25 general elections.

ROs across the country continued scrutiny process on Monday. For federal capital’s NA-53 constituency PTI chief Imran Khan’s lawyer submitted written reply to the objections filed against his nomination. His lawyer Babar Awan did not attend the proceedings but filed reply through his junior. He also moved an application for exemption of Khan from personal appearance before the RO, which was accepted.

Chaudhry Abdul Wahab Baloch, General Secretary of PJDP, a party set up by former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, challenged Khan’s nomination papers on grounds that the PTI chief has concealed his assets, assets of his two declared sons, and also deliberately concealed existence of his lovechild, Tyrian Jade Khan-White.

A similar objection was filed before electoral authorities by PJDP candidate recently against Khan’s nomination papers filed for NA-243, Karachi.

In his written reply Khan has rejected all the allegations and called them a pack of lies. He said the complainant only wants to malign his reputation for which he has attached fake documents. He appealed RO to take action against the petitioner for launching smear campaign. RO has asked Babar Awan to appear today (Tuesday) for final arguments before he decides the case.

A total of 136 candidates filed nomination papers to contest elections for three National Assembly seats for Islamabad.

NA-53 constituency, which consists of most of the Islamabad city areas as well as Bhara Kahu, has attracted the most aspirants with a total of 70 candidates filing papers. Residents are expecting a clash of heavyweights for the seat as both PTI chairman Imran Khan and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi are ready to contest from the constituency.

Former PM asked to provide tax details

Lawyers of former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Khan appeared before the ROs to plead their cases. The RO asked Abassi to submit tax details of the financial year 2014 and 2015 while keeping his decision pending on nomination papers of both these candidates.

Appellate tribunals

Once the ROs take a decision on nomination papers today, those aggrieved by their decisions would have an opportunity to file appeals before appellate tribunals by June 22nd. Tribunals will have five more days till June 27 to decide such petitions.

Dual nationals

APP has reported that as many as 122 candidates having dual nationality have filed nomination papers for provincial and national assemblies’ seats for the general election scheduled to be held on July 25. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) carried out verification of the credentials of some 19,880 candidates and found 122 of them as dual nationals.

According to an FIA report submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), a copy of which is available with APP, anomalies were found in 49 nomination papers filed for the National Assembly, 53 for the Punjab Assembly, 11 for Sindh Assembly, eight for K-P Assembly and one for Balochistan Assembly.

The candidates’ data was scanned by the FIA’s Integrated Border Management System (IBMS), which records traveller data of all incoming and outgoing passengers travelling across Pakistani borders.

“This database was utilised to identify the foreign travel document presented by the traveler at immigration counter while embarking/disembarking on the journey,” the report said.

Of the total, 60 were found to be UK nationals, 26 US nationals, 24 Canadian passport holders, three Ireland, two have Belgium nationality, while one each held passport issued by Singapore, Australia, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Spain and even Uzbekistan.

“The said data analysis exercise is limited to the available data in IBMS repository. All those contesting candidates who have traveled on a foreign travel document as per our record but have initiated renunciation process to surrender their foreign nationality have been treated as foreign travel document holder,” the report said.

Following are the names of dual national candidates and their constituencies for National Assembly seats; Muhammad Gulfam (NA-13), Muhammad Tariq (NA-18), Tufail Muhammad (NA-19), Arsallah Khan Hoti (NA-21), Siraj Mohammad (NA-25), Arshad Bashir (NA-32), Hashim Inamullah Khan (NA-36), Muhammad Saleem (NA-40), Ali Begum Khan (NA-46), Farhana Qamar (NA-53), Chaudhry Muhammad Khursheed Zaman (NA-58), Muhammad Azhar Aslam (NA-60), Nadeem Khadim (NA-66), Bilal Azhar (NA-66), Muhammad Akram (NA-73), Mohammad Akbar Chaudhry (NA-74), Ali Zahid (NA-74), Naveed Anwar Bhinder (NA-81), Muhammad Naveed (NA-86), Malik Muhammad Wazir (NA-87), Aqeel Ahmed (NA-102), Zahid Akram (NA-128 & NA-14), Nasira Sangal (NA-137 & NA-138), Ghulam Mujtaba Rai (NA-141), Sumera Ahsan (NA-141), Umair Anwar (NA-142), Jahan Ara Chaudhry (NA-143), Ahmad Yar Haraj (NA-151), Liaquat Ali Khan (NA-158), Tehmina Shafique Ahmed (NA-182), Nadir Leghari (NA-204), Sardar Muhammad Usman Almani Baloch (NA-211), Babar Chandio (NA-225), Arshad Naeem Khan (NA-227), Zafar Ali Khan (NA-227), Sabir Hussain (NA-244), Habib Shaikh (NA-246), Fauzia Danial Kasuri (NA-247), Fesal Vawda (NA-249), Araish Kumar (NAM), Farhana Qamar (NAPW), Nasira Sangal (NAPW), Maleeka Ali Bokhari (NAPW) Mehr Shafiq Ahmed (NAPW) , Tashfeen Safdar (NAPW) and Kausar Nasir (NASW).

In Punjab as many as 53 candidates including Jahangir Khanzada (PP-2), Razik Dad Khan (PP-5), Muhammad Haroon Kamal Hashmi (PP-7), Shakila Shaukat (PP-8), Chaudhry Mohammed Ishtiaq (PP-8), Chaudhry Muhammad Khurshid Zaman (PP-8), Shakila Shaukat (PP-9), Lal Hussain (PP-26), Tauseef Raza Hussain (PP-26), Nadeem Khadim (PP-26), Zafar Iqbal (PP-26), Bilal Azhar (PP-26), Syed Amir Hamza Peerzada (PP-26), Khurshid Alam Chaudhry (PP-28), Ali Raza Warraich (PP-30), Choudhry Naeemakhtar (PP-33),Muhammad Akram (PP-36), Mohammad Akhlaq (PP-36), Tariq Subhani (PP-38), Mohammad Akbar (PP-40),Babar Siddique (PP-46), Najam Hussain Cheema (PP-53), Naveed Anwar Bhinder (PP-59), Baasima Chaudhry (PP-66), Amir Abdullah Khan (PP-87), Ismel Muhammad (PP-1113), Mohammad Ramzan (PP-120), Muhammad Tariq (PP-131), Naveed Akhtar Khan (PP-139), Imtiaz Mehmood (PP-152), Chaudhry Muhammad Aatif (PP-159), Imtiaz Mehmood (PP-166), Chaudhry Muhammad Aatif (PP-167), Imtiaz Mehmood (PP-166), Abrar Hussain (PP-173), Nasira Sangal (PP-175), Muhammad Javed (PP-183), Jahan Ara Chaudhry (PP-184), Ahmad Yar Hiraj (PP-205), Liaqat Ali Khan (PP-221), Mohammad Afzal Karim (PP-231), Muhammad Ali Langrial (PP-232), Mohammad Sohail Wahid (PP-260), Imtiaz Mehmood (PP-166), Masud Majeed Khan (PP-262), Sardar Arslan H Leghari (PP-265), Araish Kuma (PAKM), Munawar Sultana (PAPW), Riffat ul Muntaha Qureshi (PAPW), Amra Shahbaz (PAPW), Baasima Chaudhry (PAPW) and Tashfeen Safdar (PAPW) have been found as dual nationals.

While in Sindh 11 candidates including Nadir Akmal Khan Leghari (PS-19), Sardar Muhammad Usman Almani Baloch (PS-33 & PS-34), Ameeruddin Abro (PS-58), Babar Chandio (PS-63, PS-64 & PS-67), Zafar Ali Rajput (PS-67), Murad Ali Shah (PS-80), Habib Shaikh (PS-109) and Syed Imran Ali Shah (PS-129) were found dual-national.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa eight candidates including Habibul Mukhtar (PK-13), Zulfikar Khan Tanoli (PK-33), Muhammad Qasim Shah (PK-42), Mohammad Farooq Khan (PK-45), Arsallah Khan Hoti (PK-52), Ziaullah Khan (Pk-6), Zahid Khan (PK-63) and Hisham Inamullah Khan (PK-92) appeared to be foreign passport holders.

In Balochistan a candidate Asim Ali Shah (PB-26) was found dual national.