ECP publishes final lists of candidates

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has published the final lists of election candidates along with their symbols. 

The lists of candidates have been displayed outside the offices of the returning officers and district returning officers across the country.

According to the schedule for the 2018 general elections, June 30 was the last day for publication of the final lists of candidates and allotment of election symbols.

A total of 21, 482 candidates have submitted nomination papers to contest the polls.

The Commission has given the go-ahead to a total of 76 candidates contesting for three National Assembly seats in Islamabad. 36 contestants alone are contesting from NA-53 constituency.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Ayesha Gulalai and former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi are vying for the NA-53 seat among others.

Disgruntled PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was allotted the symbol of jeep by the Election Commission.

The PML-N stalwart moved an application in the Commission seeking allotment of jeep as a symbol, which was approved.

He is up for two National Assembly seats, NA-56 and NA-63, Rawalpindi and four provincial assembly seats, PP-10, PP-12, PP-19 and PP-20.

In a major blow to the formerly ruling PML-N, its more than 11 candidates returned their party tickets and sought ‘jeep’ as their election symbol instead of ‘lion.

The revolting PML-N bigwigs, contesting in south Punjab as independent candidates now, include Sardar Amjad Farooq Khosa, resident of DG Khan and former MNA, Sardar Mohsin Hasan Khosa, Usama Abdul Kareem, son of former federal minister Dr Hafiz Abdul Kareem, who has been a close aide of Nawaz Sharif from DG Khan, former deputy speaker Punjab Assembly Sher Ali Gorchani, resident of Rajanpur who also has been close aide of Nawaz Sharif, Sultan Mehmood Hunjar, Hafeez-ur-Rehman Dareshak, Pervez Gorchani and Yousuf Dareshak.

The percentage of filing nomination papers witnessed around 24.28 per cent decrease as compared to the election held in 2013.

As many as 21,482 candidates have filed nomination papers to contest upcoming elections for national and provincial assemblies as compared to 28,302 in general election 2013.

A total of 5,473 candidates have filed their nominations for the National Assembly general seats for the upcoming election as compared to 7,996 in general election 2013, while 436 candidates have filed their nominations for reserved women and non-Muslim seats for upcoming election as compared to 350 in the last election.

As per the ECP data, 1,400 candidates have shown willingness to contest upcoming elections from Balochistan province as compared to 1,648 during the previous election. As many as 1920 candidates have submitted their nomination papers for 2018-polls from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while during last general 2,572 candidates had filed the papers.

In Punjab province, as many as 6,747 candidates have submitted nomination papers for the upcoming elections as compared to 9,392 in election held in 2013.

In Sindh province, around 3,626 candidates have filed their nomination papers for upcoming polls, while 5,231 candidates had filed their papers during the last general elections.

Various political parties have nominated 1726 candidates against women and non-Muslim seats in all provinces as compared to 1,131 of the last election.