The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday said it would show no mercy while conducting scrutiny of election aspirants.
ECP Additional Secretary Afzal Khan said that no one could win election at gunpoint, adding that only those candidates securing highest number of votes would win this time.
Khan warned that those displaying weapons during elections would be sent to jail.
He said by 4pm on last day, the commission had received 5,745 nomination papers. Of these, 2,546 have been completed and hoped that the scrutiny of all papers would be completed within seven days.
Meanwhile, the ECP extended the deadline for candidates to file nomination forms till midnight. Earlier, candidates were told to file their nomination forms until 4pm.
The ECP will start scrutiny of the nomination papers from today (Monday) and has asked different organisations to provide a list of those defaulting on their dues.
The ECP had earlier revised the schedule for the general elections, setting a new deadline of March 31 for submitting nomination papers.
In the second phase, the ECP would carry out the scrutiny of nomination papers from April 1 to 7.
The ECP has set April 10 deadline for the filing of appeals against decisions of the returning officers rejecting or accepting the nomination papers.
The election tribunals will decide the fate of these appeals by April 17. The candidates will be allowed to withdraw their nominations by April 18.
After a thorough scrutiny, the ECP will publish the final revised list of candidates on April 19 which will follow the holding of elections on May 11, according to the schedule.
Meanwhile, in a notification, the ECP has asked the Water and Power Development Authority, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Limited, the National Telecommunication Cooperation, Ministry of Housing and Works and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to provide details of defaulters.
The notification has also been forwarded to the administrations of the Punjab House, KPK House, Sindh House and Balochistan House to provide details of those owing amounts.
Moreover, the private utility organisations have also been asked to provide list of defaulters as it would help the ECP for the scrutiny of the nomination papers of the candidates.
Complying with the directions of the Lahore High Court, directing that the names of candidates should be included/ transferred even after the announcement of the election schedule, the ECP has directed regional/district election commissioners (registration officers) to either enter or transfer their names in the voter list of any constituency of their choice.
The extracts will be issued to such applicants on showing the receipt of filing the nomination papers.
