Reserved seats for women: ECP continues scrutiny of nomination papers

Eleven applications for the provincial assembly rejected so far.

PESHAWAR: The provincial chapter of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rejected 11 applications out of the 2,786 it received from candidates wishing to contest elections for provincial assembly seats in Khyber-Pakhtunhwa (K-P).

An ECP official told The Express Tribune that 117 applications had been accepted so far, while a total of 4,577 forms were submitted for both provincial and national assembly seats.

He said 983 applications were received from across K-P for the 35 National Assembly (NA) seats. From the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, 412 applications were submitted for 12 NA seats.

For the eight seats reserved for women in the National Assembly, the ECP received 77 forms while 229 forms were submitted for the 22 seats reserved for women in the K-P Assembly.

Talking about applications which have been rejected, the ECP official said 97 forms of provincial assembly candidates were turned down because their names were not on the priority lists sent to the ECP by political parties, adding 126 forms were yet to be examined.

The inspection of 70 forms submitted for the three provincial assembly seats reserved for minorities will be conducted on April 4, he said.

The scrutiny of 128 nomination papers of candidates vying for the 22 reserved seats for women in the provincial assembly began on Monday. Around 229 candidates had filed their papers; however, the number came down to 128 after parties sent out their priority lists to the election commission.

The scrutiny of nomination papers for the eight seats reserved in the National Assembly for K-P will begin on April 3 (today), while April 4 has been set as the date for reserved seats for minorities.

Provincial Election Commissioner Sonu Khan Baloch, who is also serving as the returning officer for the reserved seats, is conducting the inspection.

Earlier, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl had named 22 candidates including major aspirants Naima Kishwar, Farhana Banori, Uzma Khan and Shahida Akhtar.

The ANP had nominated Sitara Ayaz, Shagufta Malik, Bushra Gohar, Musarat Shafi and Yasmin Zia. Jamaat-e-Islami named 12 women for the provincial assembly and eight for the National Assembly seats.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz nominated 15 candidates for provincial seats and three for NA, while Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s Tehreek-e-Tahufaz Pakistan put forward two names for both provincial and National Assembly seats.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2013.