Senate polls: Last day to submit nomination papers

Dunya News

The process of Senate elections began on Monday and today is last day to submit nomination papers.

Elections will be held on March 2 for 54 seats of Senate and the Election Commission will receive nomination papers till 4pm today.Eighteen candidates filed their papers in Peshawar, 10 each in Islamabad and Karachi, eight in Lahore and four in Quetta.The MQM’s Nasreen Jalil, Kunwar Khalid Younus, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, Farogh Naseem, Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Arshad Vohra, Naila Latif, Umar Khan Sheerazi submitted their papers.In Lahore, six candidates from the Pakistan Muslim League-N and one each from the PML-Q and PPP submitted their papers.The PML-N’s Ishaq Dar has filed papers for a technocrat seat whereas current MNA Nuzhat Amir Sadiq and Kamran Michael have submitted papers for reserved seats for women and minorities, respectively. Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, Rafiq Rajwana, M Hamza and Zafarullah Dhandla submitted the papers on general seats.Former opposition leader in the Senate, Kamil Ali Agha of the PML-Q, and PPP’s Khalida Mohsin Qureshi also filed their papers.PPP stalwart Barrister Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, former law minister Babar Awan and Aslam Gill are expected to file their papers on Tuesday.In Peshawar, four candidates from the PPP, 10 from Awami National Party and four from the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F filed their nomination papers.From PPP, presidency’s spokesman Farhatullah Khan Babar (technocrat seat), Shamroz Khan, Ahmed Hassan Khan and Saifullah Bangash filed their papers.The ANP candidates included president of the party’s Karachi chapter Shahi Syed, Azam Khan Hoti, provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Tajuddin Khan, Ilyas Bilour (technocrat seat), Zahida Khan and Tabassum Shams (women seats) and Amarjeet Malhotra and Gulshan Yousuf.Talha Mehmood, Abdul Jalil Jan, Maulana Rahat Hussain and Naima Kishwar, all from the JUI-F, also submitted their papers in Peshawar.In Islamabad, PML-Q secretary general Mushahid Hussain Syed filed his papers to contest the only reserved seat for technocrats from Islamabad after having an understanding with the PPP.MNA Munir Khan Orakzai, MNA Sajid Hussain Turi, Dr Abdul Qadir, Najamul Hassan, Jawad Hussain, Hidayatullah, Bismillah Khan, Abdul Malik and Husain Khan from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas also filed papers for four general seats in Islamabad.In Quetta, only four candidates filed papers. Prominent among those were PPP’s Saifullah Magsi, son of Balochistan Governor Zulfiqar Magsi, and Shamroz Munir.