NA hopefuls: Papers of 112 minority candidates rejected

ROs directed to entertain bank certificates for defaulters.

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday rejected 112 out of 182 nomination papers of minority candidates for the National Assembly (NA) on the grounds that they had not been applied through the platform of political parties.

As many as 182 minority candidates had submitted their nomination papers for the 10 reserved seats in the NA. However, the ECP rejected the papers of 112 candidates while the remaining 70 papers that were applied through political parties were under scrutiny.

A ECP spokesperson said the scrutiny of the papers was underway and the final list of the minority candidates will be prepared by Sunday.

Meanwhile, a statement of the ECP said that some of those candidates who had taken loans had adjusted their overdue amounts on or after February 28, 2013 but the respective financial institutions had not reported these adjustments to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

In this regard, the ECP was receiving complaints from such borrowers contesting the elections that the clearance certificates issued by the financial institutions were not being entertained by the Returning Officers (ROs) concerned on the ground that the latter had received their information from SBP through the ECP, according to which the candidates were still classified as defaulters.

The SBP had been consulted on this issue and it was clarified that the database from where the information of loan defaulters was being provided to ECP for onward transmission to the ROs was updated only till February 8, 2013.  Therefore, if a candidate produced a certificate of a bank regarding repayment of overdue loans, the RO, after seeking confirmation from the concerned bank in that regard may take into consideration such a certificate for accepting or rejecting the nomination papers.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2013.