MPA Arif Abbasi, PPP District President Amir Fida Paracha
PTI member of Punjab Assembly Arif Abbasi said that so far no meeting has been held with any party for entering into electoral alliance.
Abbasi, who is member of the committee formed to monitor the local government elections, said that the party would contest elections from every ward of the Rawalpindi District. There is little possibility of an alliance even with parties close to PTI — Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Shiekh Rashid’s Awami Muslim League.
Similarly, PPP district president Amir Fida Paracha also rejected reports that the party was trying to form an alliance with the PTI.
He said that his party would nominate candidates from all wards. “We are busy finalising names of the candidates. Nominating candidates from every ward means we won’t be making any alliance with any party,” Paracha said categorically.
Meanwhile, after the Lahore High Court (LHC)’s ruling that elections be held on party basis, Election Commission of Pakistan has asked candidates to establish their affiliation with a political party.
Earlier, Punjab government had announced holding of elections on non-party basis, due to which candidates filed their papers without mentioning their party affiliation.
Now the candidates will be allowed to contest elections on party symbols after establishing their affiliation with a political party.
“Each candidate has to confirm his/her affiliation with a party and after scrutiny of papers, a party symbol will be allotted,” said an official of the ECP.
He said that independent candidates would be allotted new symbols.
Parties yet to finalise candidates
After the LHC ruling, the political parties have started working on finalising names of their candidates.
JI is an exception as the party has already finalised names of its candidates.
“Even before the court decision we had chosen our candidates. We have nominated our candidates from all wards of the district,” JI district amir Sajjad Abbasi said.
On the other hand, PTI has so far short-listed three candidates from each ward. From among them only one candidate would be given ticket.
“Names were shortlisted after interviews and meetings. The shortlisted candidates from each ward are asked to reach an agreement and select one person,” said Arif Abbasi.
Paracha said that his party had demanded ECP to extend date for filing the nomination papers. He said that the PPP would finalise candidates by Thursday. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) district president Sardar Muhammad Naseem could not be reached for comment.
Scrutiny of papers
Around 395 candidates have filed their nomination papers for contesting local government elections in two cantonment boards.
As the date for filing nomination papers is over, the returning officers appointed by the chief election commissioner would start scrutiny of papers from Thursday that will continue till Saturday.
Elections will be held in five cantonment boards in Rawalpindi district — Rawalpindi, Chaklala, Wah, Taxila and Murree.
The five cantonments comprise of 34 wards of which Taxila and Murree have two wards each, while the remaining three cantonments have 10 wards each.
According to the data provided by the district election commissioner’s office, around 160 candidates will contest elections in 10 wards of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board; 105 candidates have filed their papers for elections in 10 wards of Chaklala Cantonment Board, 101 candidates in Wah cantonment, 16 in Taxila and 13 in Murree Cantonment Board.
During scrutiny the ROs will check whether or not the candidates are residents of the wards they are contesting election from, have they defaulted on a bank loan, and booked in any criminal case etc.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2015.
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