PESHAWAR: The provincial office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has started scrutinising nomination papers for 128 candidates vying for the 22 reserved seats of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly.
An ECP official told The Express Tribune that over 87 nomination papers had been scrutinised without any rejection until Monday night.
Around 229 candidates had filed their nomination papers for reserved seats, however, after the political parties sent their priority lists to the ECP, the number came down to 128, the official said.
The examination of nomination papers for the eight seats reserved in the National Assembly will begin on April 3, while the date for the reserved seats for minorities is April 4.
Provincial Election Commissioner Sonu Khan Baloch, who is also serving as the returning officer for the reserved seats, is inspecting the papers.
About 77 candidates are in the run for the eight National Assembly (NA) reserved seats for K-P and 70 for two minority seats in the provincial assembly.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) has nominated 22 candidates for reserved seats for in the provincial assembly and eight for NA seats.
Similarly, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has nominated 12 women for the provincial assembly and eight for the National Assembly seats. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has nominated 15 candidates for provincial seats and three for NA. Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan’s Tehreek-e-Tahufaz Pakistan has put forward two names for both provincial and National Assembly seats.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has nominated 23 candidates for the provincial assembly and 10 for NA, while the Awami National Party (ANP) has named 14 candidates for the provincial assembly and four for the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has nominated 23 women for the provincial assembly while Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) has named 10 candidates for provincial assembly seats.
Some of the PPP nominees for reserved seats in K-P include Nighat Orakzai, Shazia Themash, Irfana Jalal, Ashbar Jadoon and Meher Sultana. The JUI-F candidates are Naeema Akhtar, Farhana Binori, Uzma Khan and Yasmeen Khan, while Yasmeen Pir Mohammad, Sitara Ayaz, Shugfta Malik and Yasmin Zia are from ANP. The PML-N candidates are Amna Sardar, Ruqia Hina, Sonia Khan and Ishrat Khatoon
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2013.