Sindh's Provincial Election Commissioner has accepted nominations of 25 out of 27 candidates of Senate election here on Thursday, the first day of scrutiny. This happened during a meeting held at the office of PEC for scrutiny of nomination papers. The meeting in this regard would be held today on February 17, 2012, the second but last day of scrutiny.
A high level official of PEC's office told Business Recorder on condition of keeping his name in secret that PEC has accepted 25 out of 27 nominations of candidates of Senate election. The nominations of PPP's Saeed Ghani (general), Dr Karim Ahmed Khuwaja (general and technocrats), Mian Raza Rabbani (general), Mukhtar Ahmed (Aajiz) Dhamrah (general), Mohammad Rashid Hussein Rabbani (general), Muddassir Sehar Kamran (women), Shahida Rehmani (women), Abdul Hafiz Sheikh (technocrats), Hari Ram (minorities), Harish Parwani (minorities), Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Syed Mustaf Kamal (general), Kanwar Khalid Younis (general), Kanwar Navid Jamil (general), Nasrin Jalil (general and women), Dr Farogh Nasim (general and technocrats), Arshad Abdullah (general), Naila Latif (women), Arif Masih (minorities), Tahir Mushhadi (general) Panjoo Mal (minorities), PML-F's Syed Muzafar Hussein Shah (general) and Manghan Mangrio (general), Pakistan Muslim League Likeminded's Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi (general), Yasmeen Farukh (women) and Photomal @ Dileep (minorities) have been accepted, he informed.
It may be noted here that candidates of PML-L mentioned their status as "independent" in their nomination papers. He said that the nomination of PML-L's Mangal Das Arwani for the seat technocrats has been rejected during the meeting of scrutiny.
He explained that according to legal requirements, candidate for the Senate seat of technocrats should have the experience of 20 years in relevant field with post graduation degree but Mangal Das Arwani is Graduate only and his experience is also less than 20 years that's why his nomination has not been accepted for the Senate election, he added.
He further told that meeting also could not decide the fate of nomination of MQM's candidate Umer Khan Ali Sherzai who applied on two seats of Senate including general and technocrats.
The meeting would be held again on February 17, 2012, (today) to look into the matter of Umer Khan Ali Sherzai and the final list of accepted candidates would be placed on same day, he said. He said that after the acceptation and rejection of nominations, two days of February 20 and 21 would be for the filing of appeals against rejection of nominations with Secretary Election Commission and disposal of appeals by Election Commission would be held on February 22 and 23.
February 24, would be the last date of withdrawal of candidature while, the list of contesting candidates would also be published on same day, he added. The polling would be held on March 2, 2012, here at the building of Sindh Assembly where all MPAs would caste their votes to elect the candidates for 12 seats of Senate of Pakistan, he concluded.