Papers of 52 candidates for five Peshawar NA seats cleared

PESHAWAR: The Returning Officer (RO) has cleared nomination papers of 52 candidates out of 68 for the five National Assembly seats of Peshawar.

However, the nomination papers of six candidates including PPP’s leader Asma Alamgir, PML-N candidate and squash champion Qamar Zaman, ANP’s Haroon Bilour, MMA’ Haji Ghulam Ali and PTI’s candidates Noor Alam Khan and Asif Khan were not cleared due to objections.

An official of the RO office said that there were objections to the nomination papers of the six candidates by the opponents, claiming that they were tax defaulters. However, the returning officers had given June 19 date to the six candidates to appear and explain their positions with the record.

Similarly, the returning officers have cleared nomination papers of 220 candidates submitted for 14 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. However, scrutiny of the remaining nomination papers will continue till June 19.

A total of 310 candidates had filed nomination papers for 14 provincial assembly seats of Peshawar.

On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan has notified Appellate Tribunals in consultation with the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court for the trial and disposal of appeals against the decisions of the returning officers for accepting/rejecting of nomination papers pertaining to National and Provincial Assemblies constituencies. The high court sitting judges will head the Appellate Tribunals.

Justice Syed Afsar Shah was appointed the head of the Appellate Tribunal at the principal seat in Peshawar for hearing appeals against the decisions of ROs for the general seats of national and provincial assemblies.

Justice Musarrat Hilali was appointed at the principal seat in Peshawar. She would hear appeals against the RO decisions for reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the National Assembly as well as Provincial Assembly.

Justice Lal Jan Khattak was appointed for Appellate Tribunal at Abbottabad Circuit Bench for hearing the appeals against the ROs decisions for general seats in the National Assembly and Provincial Assembly. Justice Muhammad Ghazanfar was appointed for Mingora bench for hearing appeals against the decisions for general seats in the National Assembly and Provincial Assembly.

Justice Abdul Shakoor was appointed for Appellate Tribunal at Bannu Circuit bench for hearing appeals against the ROs decisions for general seats in the National Assembly and Provincial Assembly.

Similarly, Justice Ijaz Anwar was appointed for Appellate Tribunal at Dera Ismail Khan Circuit bench for hearing appeals against the ROs decisions for general seats in the National Assembly and Provincial Assembly.