The ball in political parties’ court now

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  • Challenging task of selecting party candidates

Setting aside LHC’s orders on the revision of nomination forms the SC removed one of the hurdles in the way of timely elections. This enabled the ECP to start receiving nomination papers from Monday through June 8.

The political parties however have yet to put their act together. While the PML-N, PPP and PTI insisted on holding elections on time, none has so far finalised the list of its candidates for the upcoming elections. The only party that has made a partial move in the direction is the PTI which has nominated  candidates for 11 NA and 17 provincial assembly seats in Sindh besides approving nominations for 85 NA seats from Punjab. It has however yet to announce the names of its ticket holders from Lahore, Kasur, Sahiwal, Gujrat, Gujranwala and some other districts of Punjab besides candidates from KP and Balochistan. The PML-N has held two meetings of its parliamentary board without agreeing on a list of its nominees which will have to be sent then to its ‘lifelong Quaid’ for final approval. The PPP has held a meeting of its Central Election Board only to discuss nominations of party’s candidates from Sindh without finalising the list.

The selection of nominees requires time. The process involves weighing pros and cons of multiple applicants on each seat. The recent delimitation has created further headaches for the parties. Some with doubtful loyalties will have to be replaced. Some might have been good defenders of the party and its leadership in talk shows but might have turned unpopular in their own constituencies for lack of regular interaction. The problem could become acute in the case of PTI where numerous newcomers would have to be accommodated, in cases at the expense of the party’s old guard and former PTI candidates. Discipline being lax in political parties, some might decide to contest elections against their party’s nominees in case they are denied the ticket. As the ECP will allot election symbols to contesting candidates on 29 June, the parties have just over three weeks to get the issues resolved.