Pakistan elections: Candidates rush to file nomination papers as deadline looms

Islamabad: Candidates aspiring to contest the February 8 general elections in Pakistan are rushing to submit their nomination papers, as the deadline to file their candidature is set to expire on Sunday.

The nomination process started on December 20 and was initially set to be completed on Friday but the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) extended it for two days on the demand of various political parties.

The National Assembly’s 266 general and 70 reserved seats and over 600 seats of four provincial assemblies are up for grabs.

Several political leaders including PML-N's Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, former Islamabad mayor Pir Adil Gillani, Sheikh Ansar Aziz, federal capital’s ex-deputy mayors Zeeshan Naqvi and Chaudhry Riffat Javed among others submitted their nomination papers on Sunday.

Already many leading politicians, including incarcerated former premier Imran Khan, former three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, former president Asif Ali Zardari, former prime ministers Yusuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Shehbaz Sharif and many other influential leaders have filed their documents.

Khan has so far filed papers from two constituencies in Lahore and his ancestral town of Mianwali.

But his chances of getting a green signal to contest the election are slim due to his conviction in the Toshakhana corruption case for illegally selling state gifts.

In a setback, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) during the week rejected his plea for suspending his conviction in the case.

Major parties in the election are the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and others local parties are in the field.

However, the fate of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is yet not clear as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected its intra-party elections and refused to let it use the bat as the party symbol.

The party has announced that it will challenge it in the Supreme Court. Without a unifying symbol, it would be difficult for its candidates to contest.

Once the deadline for filing nomination papers ends, the ECP is set to conduct their scrutiny from Monday through December 30, as per the commission’s updated schedule.

Appeals against the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers can be submitted until January 3, with decisions expected by January 10.

The ECP is set to release the updated list of candidates on January 11, and candidates can withdraw their papers till January 12.

The allocation of electoral symbols will take place on January 13.

The foreign observers can submit applications to monitor the elections from December 31 to January 20, according to the ECP.