KARACHI: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had approved the nomination papers of PTI leader Faisal Vawda for the Senate elections, while those of PML-N leader Pervaiz Rasheed were rejected.
Rasheed was told he was a defaulter of the Punjab House in Islamabad and his nomination would be accepted only after he cleared the dues. The returning officer accepted the objection to Rasheed’s nomination and said that he failed to provide evidence regarding having cleared the dues.
Speaking to the media in Lahore, the PML-N leader termed the development an attempt to keep him from contesting Senate polls, saying he was not informed of the outstanding dues.
“When I tried to fulfill this demand by paying the outstanding amount and exercising my right to participate in the polls, all government officials disappeared from their seats and offices,” he said, adding that officers were not giving bank account number nor are they taking cash
He alleged that the PTI was inventing “fake” cases to incarcerate opposition leaders. He claimed government officials were not ready to accept the payment as they had been given directives by Prime Minister Imran Khan so that he could be stopped from contesting the polls. He said it was his legal right to appeal the ECP’s decision.
In 2018, the Punjab government had released a list of 76 politicians, bureaucrats and others for defaulting on the payment for their stay and meals at Punjab House in Islamabad.
According to the list at the time, Rasheed owed Rs7.05m, including Rs0.69m charges for his stay from January to August in 2011 and Rs6.4m for his stay between June 2013 and May 2018. His daughter Poonam Rasheed owed Rs2.7m.
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Meanwhile, the ECP has approved the nomination papers of all candidates of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) from Sindh for the Senate elections.
The election commission will conduct scrutiny of the nomination papers of further 22 candidates submitted for 11 senate seats for general as well as the seats for technocrats and women categories. The PPP has issued tickets to Taj Haider, Shahadat Awan, Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar, Salim Mandviwalla and Sherry Rehman for general seats in Sindh.
For the technocrat seats, tickets were given to Farooq Naek, Karim Ahmed Khawaja and Shahadat Awan, while for the women’s seat Palwasha Khan, Khairunisa Mughal and Rukhsana Shah have been nominated by the party.
Earlier the ECP accepted former prime minister and PPP leader Yousuf Raza Gilani’s nomination papers for the upcoming Senate election. The commission rejected objections filed by PTI’s Fareed Rehman who had challenged the former premier’s nomination for a Senate seat.
