ECP okays 34 nomination papers for Senate polls in Sindh

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday accepted the nomination papers of 34 candidates for 12 seats of the Senate of Pakistan based in Sindh.

After the scrutiny of the nomination papers, there are now 20 candidates for the seven general seats, six candidates for the two seats for women, five candidates for the two seats for technocrats, and three candidates for the single seat reserved for minorities in the Senate for Sindh.

The nomination form of the candidate of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Muhammad Najeeb Haroon, was rejected due to a bank default issue.

The candidates whose nomination forms have been accepted for the general seats are Muhammad Abu Bakar, Faisal Vawda, Abdul Rauf Siddiqui, Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, Amir Waliuddin Chishti, Hamayu Sultan, Ashraf Ali Jatoi, Syed Masroor Ahsan, Syed Kazim Ali Shah, Sarfaraz Rajar, Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto, Javed Ahmed Nayab, Dost Ali Jessar, Abdul Wahab, Ghanwer Ali Khan Isran, Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamrah Aajiz, Ali Tahir, Mir Raja Khan Jakhrani, Shehnaz Zaheer and Nighat Mirza.

The candidates whose nomination papers have been accepted for the seats reserved for technocrats are Zamir Hussain Ghumro, Sarmad Ali, Karim Ahmed Khawaja, Manzoor Ahmed Bhutta and Abdul Wahab.

For the seats reserved for women, the candidates with valid nomination papers are Quratulain Marri, Rubina Qaimkhani, Yasmin Dadabhoy, Musarrat Nazeer Niazi, Sabina Parveen and Mehjabeen Riaz.

For the single seat reserved for minorities, the candidates with valid nomination papers are Poonjo Bheel, Sadhumal Surendar Valasai and Bhagwan Das.

The ECP will receive appeals against rejecting or accepting the nomination papers on March 21. The poll tribunals will decide on the appeals till March 25.

The revised list of the candidates will be issued on March 26. The candidates can withdraw from the electoral race till March 27. Polling for these 12 Senate seats will be held on April 2. On March 11 the ECP had issued the schedule for the Senate elections, fixing April 2 as the polling day to elect 48 senators. The electoral body said it had completed preparations for conducting the Senate elections.

It noted that 52 senators were retiring on the completion of their six-year term. However, it clarified that there would be no election for the four senators from ex-Fata, who were also retiring after the region was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 by virtue of the 25th constitutional amendment. Hence, the election would be held to elect 48 senators.

On March 14, in the by-elections for the six vacant seats of the Senate, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) bagged four of the seats, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) succeeded to win one seat each.

Voting for the six Senate seats in the National, Sindh and Balochistan assemblies began at 9am and ended at 4pm. These six seats had fallen vacant under Article 223 of the constitution, which prohibits lawmakers from holding dual membership.

Clause (4) of the article states: “Subject to clause (2), if a member of either House or of a Provincial Assembly becomes a candidate for a second seat which, in accordance with clause (1), he may not hold concurrently with his first seat, then his first seat shall become vacant as soon as he is elected to the second seat.”