ECP rejects two Senate nominees from MQM-P, two from PSP

ISLAMABAD: Nomination papers of two members of both Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) were rejected by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday.

According to reports, ECP rejected nomination papers of MQM-P member Amir Waliuddin Chishti on General category for being a bank defaulter and former Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) chairman Ahmed Chinoy on technocrat seat for failing to produce 16 years of his educational qualification as required.

Pak Sarzameen Party’s nominee Hassan Sabir’s papers were rejected as his proposer/seconder subscribed more than one nomination paper which is not permissible under Election Act 2017. Meanwhile, the other nominee of the party Sofia Saeed Shah’s nomination papers filed on Technocrat and Women seats were also rejected for the same said reasons.

Earlier on Monday, Ishaq Dar’s nomination papers for the Senate elections were rejected by ECP. He had applied for a technocrat seat from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The returning officer rejected his nomination papers during scrutiny as the counsel for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate objected that Dar had not submitted an authentic declaration of his assets.

The returning officer ruled that Dar, thus, is not ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’ as per the Constitution.

Moreover, the nomination papers of PML-N’s other technocrat seat candidate, Hafiz Abdul Karim, were also dismissed on Monday.

Meanwhile, scrutiny of nomination papers for provincial seats of Senate, under the supervision of Returning Officer (RO) Zafar Iqbal, is in progress.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has received 34 nomination papers from Punjab, eight from Islamabad, 34 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 28 from Balochistan and 49 from Sindh, and nine from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).