Heads rolled as the ECP did away with the nominations of Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PTI Chairman Imran Khan, MQM-P head Farooq Sattar, General (r) Pervez Musharraf, and Ayesha Gulalai in one fell sweep, as the Election Commission completed its scrutiny of nomination papers for the upcoming general elections.
There was just a hint of pandemonium as politicians and press men alike tried to get their lists straight to figure out whose nomination had been rejected and in which constituency. The cause for alarm is little of course, and the ECP has already set up 12 election tribunals to hear the appeals of those whose papers have been rejected. Most of the rejections have been on technical grounds and should soon enough be cleared, and while nobody has gone into crisis mode as of yet, a few feathers have naturally been ruffled.
The PTI Chairman had a particularly rough day. While his candidature is a go in NA 35 Bannu, NA 131 Lahore, and NA 243 Karachi, it must be a bit of a sore point that the two ROs that rejected his papers were the ones from NA 53 Islamabad and NA 95 Mianwali. NA 95 will hurt because Mianwali is his hometown and the closest thing Imran has to posing himself as an organic constituency politician in addition to his national status. NA 53 because it is Islamabad, and the closest constituency to the one he is currently an MNA from in Rawalpindi, a seat he has decided to leave.
Interestingly enough, the reason for Imran’s rejection was not an external objection but an empty question on his affidavit. The question Khan had left blank? The one in which he was required to describe his performance as an MNA. Well, little surprise there, Imran didn’t have much to say given he had the worst attendance in Parliament.
Question is, when he inevitably appeals, will he use his absence from assembly sessions as an excuse or actually fill in the empty column? If he decides to do the latter, one can imagine it would be a short response.
But NA 53 was apparently no walk in the park for anyone, as former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also had his nomination papers thrown out on technical grounds and will be going for appeals as well. To make things just a little bit more embarrassing for the Nawaz League, if not fatal, his cover candidate Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi also had his papers scrapped. The RO in NA 53, Muhammad Adnan, seems to have a particularly strong eye for detail, as he also managed to pick out technicalities to do away with Ayesha Gulalai as well.
At the same time, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Asif Ali Zardari, Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz, and Maryam Nawaz all had it smooth sailing. His family not meeting any troubles will be a relief for Mian Nawaz, even if his successor as PM did face them. That Pervez Musharraf was first humbled by the Supreme Court and now also told to go back to the drawing board by the ECP will make things just a little brighter for Mian Nawaz.
Post-script:
Even as there was a flurry of activity on the election front, some things remained the same, and the sit-in outside Bani Gala by disgruntled party workers continued. Meanwhile, NADRA says that there has been no data leak and that there never has been. It is a blanket rejection, but one hopes for everyone’s sake that it is the reality of things.
