RAWALPINDI: Security deposits of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPPP), Mutihda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) candidates have been forfeited on five National Assembly (NA) seats of the district out of seven.
The election on NA-60 was postponed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) due to life imprisonment of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Hanif Abassi in ephedrine case while ECP has ordered re-counting of NA-57 votes. Losing security deposit in any election is termed as a humiliating defeat.
According to Section 43 of The Representation of People Act 1976 in the Election Laws, any candidate who fails to get one-eighth (12.5 percent) of the total votes cast in a constituency from where he contests the polls, his security deposit would be confiscated.
Although the security deposit is not a handsome amount but in Pakistani politics, one whose security is confiscated is considered to have been defeated humiliatingly.
In NA-58 MMA candidate Mehmood Hussain got 1,960 votes and failed to keep his security deposit.
In NA-59 Ch Kamran Ali Khan of PPPP got 4830 votes while the total votes polled were 209,974. MMA’s candidate Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Tauhidi obtained 1,506 votes and TLP candidate Malik Taj bagged 14,320 votes and could not obtain 12.5 per cent of the total votes.
Similarly from NA-61 Haji Gulzar Ahmed Khan of PPP could only get 2,693 votes while TLP candidate Syed Shahid Pervaiz got 9,246 votes and MMA candidate Mian Zafar Yaseen bagged 3,899 votes.
From NA-62 Sumera Gul of PPPP also could not manage to save her security deposit as she obtained 5,583 votes. MMA’s candidate Tariq Munir got 3,719 votes while TLP candidate Ch Qadeer Ahmed bagged 9,366 votes.
From NA-63, Syed Ishrat Ali Zaidi obtained 2,833 votes while the total votes polled were 211,126. TLP’s candidate Muhammad Ijaz Ahmed got 9,744 votes while Waqas Khan of MMA bagged 4,430 votes.
All these candidates got their security deposits confiscated.
