Senate elections: Papers can be submitted till tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Saturday extended date for filing nomination papers from February 13 to February 15.

According to the Election Commission Media Wing, the Election Commission while fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities, issued an election programme on February 11, 2021 to hold elections on the seats vacated due to the retirement of members of the Senate.

It was highlighted in print and electronic media that the candidates were finding it difficult to meet the legal requirements due to lack of time to submit their nomination papers. In this regard, written and oral requests were also received for extension in the date for submission of nomination papers.

In view of all these facts and for the convenience of the candidates, the Election Commission has extended the last date for submission of nomination papers to February 15.

In addition, the list of nominated candidates will be posted on February 16, 2021. The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held from February 17 to 18, 2021 in the offices of the Returning Officers.

The last date for appeal to the tribunal against the decisions of the Returning Officers to accept or reject the nomination papers is February 20, 2021 while the last date for disposal of these appeals is February 23, 2021.

The revised list of candidates will be posted on February 24 in light of the tribunal's decision. The date for withdrawal of nomination papers is February 25, 2021. The already fixed date for polling for the Senate elections, which is March 3, 2021, will not change, says the Election Commission.

Talking to journalists here, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh made an appeal to the Senate electoral college to help the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in realisation of Imran Khan's agenda of change. He added that in a democratic process, not one, more people contest. The minister remarked that the aim of politics is to serve Pakistan and its people and come up to their expectations.

The minister said that the government wanted to further improve economic situation of the country and all would have to jointly work for it.

PTI’s Abdul Hafeez Sheikh would contest Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) joint candidate Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on general list from Islamabad.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party (PP) raised questions on the recent decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the issue of change in the Senate election schedule.

“I had written a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) giving logic and arguments to extend the date but he rejected the demand to extend the date and now the decision of the ECP to change the schedule gives rise to suspicions while the date was extended only a day after the ECP’s refusal,” said Secretary General PPP Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari in a reaction to ECP’s announcement of extension on date for submission of the nomination papers for the Senate election.

Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari further said that the ECP should clarify why PPP demand was denied and under whose pressure the date was extended.

Bukhari said that it is clear that the ruling party could not make a final decision on the tickets of the PTI candidates so the date was extended. “The ECP has played the role of facilitator for the ruling party by changing the schedule,” he said.

He said that the ECP is making the Senate elections controversial with such measures.

He said that PPP expressed serious concerns over this decision and demanded clarification.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP said it was fully prepared to conduct the Senate elections in a free, fair, impartial and transparent manner under the Constitution and the law and that unnecessary statements in this regard be avoided.

“Therefore, unnecessary statements in this regard should be avoided to make the constitutional duties and impartiality of the Election Commission controversial,” an ECP spokesperson said here. He noted that the date of filing of nomination papers was extended in view of the requests made and to avoid any difficulty to political parties in case of disqualification of candidate (s).

He maintained that the Senate elections are held in accordance with the constitutional term enshrined in Article 224 (3) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. As a result, the Senate elections are held within 30 days of the end of the constitutional term of the incumbent senators.

The ECP announces the election programme in view of this restriction of days enshrined in the Constitution. Therefore, the Election Commission had issued a press release on February 3, long before the date of release of the election programme i.e. February 11, 2021, in which the attention of all political parties and potential candidates was drawn to the fact that the Election Commission given date of February 11, 2021 so that political parties can take necessary steps to issue their party tickets and potential candidates can open their bank accounts for submitting their nomination papers.

The ECP formally announced the election programme on February 11, 2021 through a notification in view of the timeframe given for the various stages of elections under sub-section 2 of section 107 of the Constitution and the Elections Act 2017. Under which two days i.e. February 12-13, 2021 were allotted for nomination papers. Note that this two-day ban is in accordance with sub-section (a) 2 of section 107 of the Elections Act 2017.

On February 12, 2021, a letter from Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, General Secretary, Pakistan People’s Party, was at the Election Commission at the end of office hours in the evening in which he expressed difficulties regarding the dates and duration of various stages of the election programme. It was pointed out that political parties have to go through various stages to finalise the names of their candidates and similarly candidates need time to open bank accounts.

Therefore, the duration of nomination papers should be extended. On February 13, 2021, a representative of the government of Sindh expressed similar views. Similarly, the Complaints Management System of the Election Commission also received difficulties in this regard from various sources.

These circumstances and events were presented before the Election Commission which considered the matter in detail and, in view of the fear of possible disqualification of any prospective candidate as a result of these difficulties, exercised its constitutional and legal powers under Section 128 of the Elections Act, 2017. Under this, the date for submission of nomination papers has been extended till Monday, February 15, 2021.

It should also be noted that this extension will not affect the polling day and polling will be held on March 3, 2021.

In this regard, it is necessary to draw the attention of all political parties and candidates to the legal points mentioned in sub-section 2 of section 110 of the Elections Act 2017 that nomination papers should be submitted and restricted so as not to cause any trouble later.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has released the list of its candidates for the upcoming Senate elections.

To this effect, a meeting of the PTI Parliamentary Board was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan in which the candidates, for the Senate elections, were finalised and the final names were announced after the approval of the prime minister.

PTI has nominated Saifullah Nyazee (North Punjab), Ejaz Chaudhry (Central Punjab), Aon Abbas (Southern Punjab), Ali Zafar (for technocrats seat) and Dr Zarqa (Women seat) from Punjab for the Senate elections, whereas Faisal Vawda (General) and Saifullah Abro (Technocrat) from Sindh will be its candidates, while Shibli Faraz, Mohsin Aziz, Zeeshan Khanzada, Faisal Saleem, Najibullah Khattak (General), Dost Mohammad and Dr Humayun Mohmand (Technocrats) from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are among the candidates.

Sania Nishtar, Falaknaz Chitrali (Women) and Gordeep Singh (Minorities) are also PTI candidates from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The ruling party has nominated Federal Minister for Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Fauzia Arshad (General) from the federal capital.

In view of resentment in the party ranks, the PTI late Saturday withdrew nomination of Abdul Qadir (General) from Balochistan for the Senate ticket and awarded it to Zahoor Agha.

According to Federal Minister for Science and Technology and SAPM Dr Shahbaz Gill announced this development on their Twitter accounts and said that the ‘captain always listens to his party workers’ voice’.

Interestingly, some names, including Adviser on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan, Adviser on Interior Shahzad Akbar, Amir Mughal and Sajjad Turi, who is chief whip in the Senate, could not get Senate tickets from PTI, though their names had been circulating in media circles in recent days.