Nomination papers for Senate: Gilani, Vawda’s papers accepted, Pervaiz Rashid’s rejected

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday rejected an objections raised by the PTI and accepted the nomination papers of former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani for the Senate polls.

The PTI’s Faisal Vawda also passed the process of acceptance of nomination papers, but PML-N’s Pervaiz Rasheed’s papers were rejected over defaulting on dues of the Punjab House and Parliament Lodges.

Returning Officer (RO) Zafar Iqbal announced the verdict about Yusuf Raza Gilani. The PTI leader Fareed Rehman had challenged the candidacy of Gilani claiming the former premier hid facts in his nomination papers.

During a hearing on Wednesday, the former prime minister’s lawyer had contended that his client had completed the sentence given to him by the Supreme Court. He said Gilani was then able to contest the elections. Yusuf Raza Gilani’s disqualification ended in 2017, the lawyer had told the ECP.

The Punjab returning officer for Senate elections rejected the nomination papers of the PML-N leader and former information minister Pervaiz Rasheed for defaulting on dues of the Punjab House and Parliament Lodges.

Six objections against his candidature were raised by Rana Mudassar Advocate and PTI MPA Zainab Umair. However, five of them were rejected by the returning officer, but Pervaiz Rasheed failed to provide evidence he had cleared dues of the Punjab House. The PTI counsel contended that Pervaiz Rasheed had not paid Rs9,500,000 of the Punjab House.

"It was a prerequisite to clear the dues if he wanted to contest the Senate elections. Instead, he has been levelling allegations on security institutions," he pleaded. Pervaiz Rasheed can move a petition against the decision of the returning officer in the election tribunal formed to hear complaints against decisions of the RO.

Talking to the media, the PML-N leader termed the rejection of his nomination papers a poor move made by the government to stop him from contesting Senate polls. He alleged that he had visited offices concerned for clearing the outstanding dues, but no officer entertained him as all government officials disappeared from their seats and offices when he reached there.

"The officers neither gave their bank accounts nor took cash," Pervaiz Rasheed claimed, adding that the ruling PTI was trying its best to stop opposition leaders from contesting the Senate elections. He claimed the government officials were not ready to accept the payment, and perhaps they had been directed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, so that he could be stopped from the polls on "technical grounds."

He maintained that it was his legal right to appeal against the decision. "You can close the doors of the Parliament on me but you cannot silence my voice," he maintained.

On Thursday, the RO also rejected nominations of Neelam Arshad from the PTI. Nominations of 11 candidates have been accepted by the Pakistan Election Commission from Punjab so far.

Faisal Vawda appeared at Election Commission Sindh office where his nomination papers were accepted. During his appearance, the PTI and PPP workers also chanted slogans against each other.

Meanwhile, four Senate election candidates contesting for technocrats’ and women's reserved seats — two each — in Punjab have been elected unopposed.

According to the Punjab Election Commissioner, PTI's Ali Zafar and PML-N's Azam Nazir Tarar won the technocrats' seats. The PTI's candidate Attaullah Khan withdrew his nomination papers for the technocrats' seat.

The PTI's Dr Zarqa and PML-N's Sadia Abbasi were also elected unopposed from Punjab for the women's seats. The province's election commissioner said that Abbasi was the covering candidate and was declared successful after Saira Tarar did not appear for her paper's scrutiny.