21 Candidates Cleared to Contest 12 Senate Seats in Punjab

News Desk

Lahore: A total of 21 candidates have been allowed to contest elections for 12 Senate seats in Punjab after scrutiny of their nomination papers.

Twenty-eight candidates had filed nomination papers with Provincial Election Commissioner Punjab Aijaz Anwar Chohan, who also served as the returning officer for the Senate Election, for 12 Senate seats, including seven general, two reserved for women, two for technocrats/ulema, and one reserved for non-Muslims, from Punjab.

As per the lists of qualified and rejected candidates issued by the provincial election commissioner on Wednesday, the nomination papers of 21 candidates were accepted, while the papers of seven candidates were rejected.

The nomination papers of 12 candidates were accepted for the seven general seats after scrutiny. The candidates are: Walid Iqbal, Shahzad Waseem, Muhammad Tallal Badar, Ejaz Hussain Minhas, Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi, Ahad Khan Cheema, Pervaiz Rashid, Nasir Mehmood, Hamid Khan, Raja Nasir Abbas, Musadik Masood Malik, and Omar Sarfraz Cheema. For the two technocrat seats, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Mustafa Ramday, Yasmin Rashid, and Musadik Masood Malik were allowed to contest.

Faiza Ahmad, Anusha Rehman Ahmad Khan, and Bushra Anjum Butt were allowed to contest the two women-reserved seats. For the one minority seat, the nomination papers of Asif Ashiq and Khalil Tahir were declared valid.

Meanwhile, the nomination papers of seven candidates were rejected for the Senate elections. The nomination papers of Mian Najeeb-ud-Din Awaisi, Irfan Ahmad Khan Daha, Sayed Zulifkar Abbas Bukhari, and Khawaja Habib-ur-Rehman were rejected for general seats.

The nomination papers of Surriya Naseem and Sanam Javed Khan were rejected for women-reserved seats, whereas the nomination papers of Tariq Javed were rejected for the minority seat. Polling for the 12 Senate seats from Punjab will be held on April 2 in the provincial assembly.

According to the schedule issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the last date for filing appeals against the decisions of the RO about acceptance or rejection of nomination papers would be March 21.