The assets and credentials of different parties' candidates, including Pakistan People's Party's Aitzaz Ahsan and Babar Awan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's Zulfiqar Khosa and Sardar Zafarullah Khan Dhandhla, have been challenged in Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
According to ECP sources, various petitioners have challenged assets and credentials of a number of candidates, who have filed their nominations papers in Senate's elections with returning officers and the ECP has fixed hearing of the cases on February 23 and 24. The cases will be heard by the commission comprising chief election commissioner and its four members.
Aitzaz Ahsan, Babar Awan, Zulfiqar Khosa and Sardar Zafarullah Khan Dhandhla are among the 12 candidates, who are sure to be elected unopposed to the Upper House from Punjab. The ECP is reviewing the papers submitted by 166 candidates against 54 Senate seats along with the details of their assets, said an official of the ECP, adding that the credentials of declared assets of all candidates will be scrutinised on Friday, while appeals against rejection and acceptance of nomination papers can be filed on Monday and Tuesday.
February 24 has been fixed for the candidates who wish to withdraw their nomination papers and the same day final list of candidates will be published. According to details of the assets submitted to the ECP, Aitzaz Ahsan and his wife own 150 acres of land. Both have Rs 116 million in around 20 bank accounts. Babar Awan has property worth Rs 20.5 million in Spain, while he has two vehicles, agricultural land worth Rs 20 million, bank accounts containing Rs 70.78 million and investments in a bank and a private company worth Rs 30.40 million. He also owns a house in Islamabad worth Rs 30 million and an office in Lahore worth Rs 2 million, said the official.
Whereas, PML-N's Zulfiqar Khosa owns around 99 acres of land and pays agricultural tax worth Rs 7, 000 annually. He also has Rs 0.7 million in his bank account. Another candidate of PML-N Zafarullah Dhandhla has Rs 0.5 million, two vehicles and 74.25 acres of land. He pays Rs 3, 000 as agricultural tax.
The ECP also rejected nomination papers of two PML-N candidates namely Muhammad Omar Mughal and Dr Mazhar Hussain contesting for Senate seats from the federal capital Islamabad and directed them to complete their documentation by Friday. The commission also asked the two candidates to complete their credentials required for contesting the Senate elections for technocrat and general seats.
According to the ECP sources Dr Hussain filed nomination papers for a technocrat seat and could not submit the certificate of achievement, a requirement to submit national-level achievements under the Senate Elections Act 1995. Mughal is PML-N's candidate on general seat from the Federal Capital. Meanwhile, the ECP accepted nomination papers of other two candidates- Mushahid Hussain Syed of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Osman Saifullah of PPP.
Currently, the ECP has received as many as 93 applications for 33 general seats, 29 applications for eight women seats, 26 for nine technocrats and 18 for four minorities' seats. Whereas, 25 applications were received in Punjab, 32 in Sindh, 38 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 51 in Balochistan against 12 seats from each province. Against four seats of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the ECP has received 15 nominations, while for the two seats in the federal capital, four candidates have filed their nomination papers.