Upcoming polls: Twelve nominations for Senate elections accepted

Senate election becoming a cattle market, says JI chief.

LAHORE: The returning officer for Senate polls accepted nomination papers of 12 candidates from the Punjab on Thursday – the first day of scrutiny of nomination papers 

Zafar Iqbal Hussain, the provincial election commissioner and returning officer for Senate polls, cleared the nomination papers of Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq and candidates fielded by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz for general seats: Mushahidullah Khan, Chaudhry Tanveer Khan, Ghaus Niazi, Muhammad Nehal Hashmi, Khawaja Mehmood Ahmed and Saleem Zia.

Hussain also accepted nomination papers of four women – Najma Hameed, Ayesha Raza Farooq and Kiran Dar of the PML-N and Sarwat Malik of the Pakistan Peoples Party – on reserved seats. Nomination papers of PPP’s Nadeem Afzal Chan were accepted for a general seat.



Some objections were raised to the nominations of Professor Sajid Mir and Raja Zafarul Haq of the PML-N, who submitted their papers for seats reserved for technocrats. The RO will pass a verdict on the matter on Friday.

Later commenting on the Senate elections, Sirajul Haq said if horse trading in the Senate polls was not stopped, the JI would appeal to the masses to take the lawmakers involved to task.

He was speaking to the media at the provincial election commission after the scrutiny of his nomination papers for Senate.

Haq said trading votes in the Senate, too, was a type of terrorism.

“What could be more shameful than having lawmakers voted into the assembly by people being purchased like cattle?”

He said the Senate elections had been turned into a cattle market. He said that the Senate should not be a club of the elite.

He said that the JI and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf would collaborate on the Senate polls.

Haq requested lawmakers to refuse bribes for votes and to exercise their right on merit.

He said that upcoming Senate election was a matter of honour for lawmakers of all provinces.

“The nation will not allow anyone to bulldoze the country’s bright future,” the JI chief said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2015.