ECP extends date for submission of Senate poll nomination papers

Candidates can now submit their nomination papers by Monday

ISLAMABAD:

As the Election Commission of Pakistan announced to extend the date for submission of nomination for the Senate elections till Monday, candidates from all the political parties continued to submit their papers.

According to a press release issued by ECP, the date has been extended to facilitate the candidates.

As per the new schedule, the list of contesting candidates will be published on coming Tuesday and the nomination papers will be scrutinized on March 17 and 18.

The candidates will then be able to file appeals against acceptance or rejection of nomination papers by 20th of this month. The last date for disposing of these appeals is 23.

The revised list of candidates will be published on March 24 while the candidates will be able to withdraw their nomination papers by 25.

Polling on the 48 seats will be held on March 3 at the parliament house Islamabad and the four provincial assemblies.

PTI’s candidate from K-P and Minister for Information Shibli Faraz said the government was making efforts to ensure transparency in the upcoming Senate elections.

Talking to the media in Peshawar, he said a transparent electoral system strengthens democratic system in the country.

“The government is trying to bring forward talented and skilled people in politics,” he added

Faraz said the opposition doesn’t want to abolish the culture of cash from Senate elections.

He said they couldn’t bring transparency in their 10-year term stressing that opposing open balloting in the Senate elections is incomprehensible.

He said the PTI parliamentarians will vote for its party candidate in the Senate elections.

About the recent video scandal of horse trading, he said a committee has been constituted which will probe the matter in a transparent manner.

Faraz also congratulated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government over the Universal Health Insurance Programme.

Meanwhile, Minister for Finance and Revenue Hafeez Sheikh, who is the PTI candidate from Islamabad, said that improving the economy and putting the country on a strong footing is the aim of the government.

Talking to the media persons outside Election Commission of Pakistan in Islamabad he said we are working to live up to the expectations of the people.

He was confident that the PTI will emerge victorious in the upcoming Senate elections.

The minister said we are proud of our democratic system.

Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, in a tweet, shared the final list of PTI candidates.

Following is the complete list of PTI #Senate Candidates .... pic.twitter.com/4ULGPFanL6

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) February 13, 2021

Despite express their reservations on the election schedule, major political parties of the country – including the ruling PTI, the PML-N, the PPP and the JUI-F –unveiled lists of their candidates who will take part in the polls.

The candidates include bigwigs like former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who was disqualified by the apex 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.