Provincial Election Commissioner on Friday rejected nomination papers of Muttahida Qaumi Movement's candidate Umer Khan Ali Sherzai, who had submitted nomination papers for general as well as technocrats' seats. Sherzai's nomination papers were rejected during scrutiny here on Friday, which was last day for the purpose.
Earlier, on Thursday the commission had also rejected nomination paper of PML-L's Mangal Das Arwani. The commission accepted nomination papers of 25 candidates for Senate elections including PPP's Saeed Ghani (general), Dr Karim Ahmed Khuwaja (general and technocrats), Mian Raza Rabbani (general), Mukhtar Ahmed (Aajiz) Dhamrah (general), Rashid Rabbani (general), Muddassir Sehar Kamran (women), Shahida Rehmani (women), Abdul Hafeez Sheikh (technocrats), Hari Ram (minorities), Harish Parwani (minorities), MQM's Syed Mustafa 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).
An official told Business Recorder that Sherzai had retired from government service in 2008, and was re-appointed on contract that lasted in January 2011. Thus, he was considered to be ineligible to contest Senate polls since the law barred government servants from taking part in political activities till two years of their retirement. Appeals against rejection of nominations could be filed with Secretary Election Commission on February 20 and 21 and ECP would heard the appeals and dispose of these on February 22 and 23. February 24, would be the last date for withdrawal of candidature while the list of contesting candidates would be published the same day.