Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday said that it would carry out strict scrutiny of candidates contesting the upcoming general elections. Additional Secretary ECP Afzal Khan said that no one could win election on gun point and added that only those candidates securing highest number of votes would win this time.
Afzal Khan warned that those displaying weapons during elections would be sent to jail. He said that by 4pm on Saturday, the commission had received 5745 nomination papers. Of these, scrutiny of 2546 nomination papers were completed and hoped that the scrutiny of all the papers would be completed within the given time of seven days.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission extended the deadline to file nomination forms by aspirant candidates till midnight. Earlier, candidates' had until 4:00 PM to file their nomination forms. The ECP will start scrutiny of the nomination papers from Monday and has asked different organisations to provide a list of those defaulting on their dues. The ECP had earlier revised the schedule for the general elections, setting a new deadline of March 31 for submitting nomination papers. In the second phase, the ECP would carry out the scrutiny of nomination papers from April 1 to 7. The ECP has set April 10 as the deadline for filing of appeals against decisions of the returning officers rejecting or accepting the nomination papers.
The Election Tribunals will decide the fate of these appeals by April 17. The candidates will be allowed to withdraw their nominations by April 18. After a thorough scrutiny, the ECP will publish the final revised list of candidates on April 19 which will follow the holding of elections on May 11, according to the schedule. Meanwhile, in a notification, the ECP has asked the Water and Power Development Authority, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Limited, Pakistan Telecommunication Company, Ministry of Housing and Works and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to provide details of defaulters.
The notification has also been forwarded to the administrations of the Punjab House, KPK House, Sindh House and Balochistan House to provide details of those owing amounts. Moreover, the private utility organisations have also been asked to provide list of defaulters as it would help the ECP for the scrutiny of the nomination papers of the candidates.
On the other hand, the ECP relaxed the condition of opening new bank accounts for prospective election candidates to justify the election expenditures within the announced limits. According to the spokesman, the ECP has decided that all the prospective candidates who would file nomination papers on March 31, 2013 may either provide the number of their existing account in any bank, if any, or open a new bank account and provide that number to the returning officers concerned on the day of scrutiny of their nomination papers.
He said the decision has been taken following calls the ECP had been receiving from candidates that it was not possible for them to open new bank accounts on March 31, 2013, being Sunday, the weekly holiday for banks. According to a press release, the ECP has also allowed all contesting candidates to include or transfer their names in the electoral list of their choicest constituency. Complying with the directions of Lahore High Court issued recently, directing that the names of candidates should be included/transferred even after the announcement of the election schedule, the ECP has directed Regional/District Election Commissioners (Registration Officers) to either enter or transfer their names in the voter list of any constituency of their choice.
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