170 aspirants vie for 48 Senate seats

ISLAMABAD: With a kind of question mark still hanging on the mode of polling, as many as 170 aspirants of the 48 Senate seats filed nomination papers as the extended deadline ended Monday. Though, the government has promulgated an ordinance for open balloting in the upcoming Senate elections, President Dr Arif Alvi has, through a reference, sought the opinion of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on open balloting by amending Section 122(6) of the Elections Act, 2017 without amending the Constitution. Maximum 51 nomination papers were filed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including 22 for general seats, 11 for technocrats/Ulema seats, 13 for women seats, 05 for non-Muslims, followed by Balochistan, where a total 41 nomination papers were filed, which included 19 for genera seats, 08 for technocrats/Ulema, 09 for women, 05 for non-Muslims.

Likewise, in Sindh, as many as 39 nomination papers were submitted, including 19 for general seats, 11 for technocrats/Ulema, 09 for women and in Punjab, a total of 29 papers were filed, which included 21 for general seats, 03 for technocrats/Ulema and 05 for women.

In the federal capital, 06 papers were filed for general seat and 04 for women seat. Names of nominated candidates will be published on Feb 16 and the scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on 17 and 18.

Appeals against acceptance or rejection of nomination papers will be filed on Feb 19 and 20. The decision on appeals will be made on Feb 22 and 23 and a revised list of candidates will be published on 24. Feb 25 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature while the polling date will remain unchanged i.e. March 03.

Meanwhile, controversy of nomination of some candidates by PTI continues to persist and they include Federal Minister Faisal Vawda, Saifullah Abro, Najiullah Khattak and Faisal Saleem. Awami National Party’s Senator Sitara Ayaz, who resigned as senator the other day, filed her nomination papers from the platform of Balochistan Awami Party.

To a possible review of some nominations, a meeting of the Parliamentary Board of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan, was held and its members expressed reservations over the allotment of Senate ticket to Faisal Vawda, it was learnt.

It was argued that Vawda was pushing for becoming senator in view of his disqualification case before the Election Commission of Pakistan on allegedly hiding his dual nationality at the time of election in 2018.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said in the meeting that PTI would give party tickets for the elections on merit, respect the wishes of the party workers, would not make any para shooter a senator.