Electioneering up for scrutiny phase
By Saad Saud

ISLAMABAD—On the directives of Election Commission of Pakistan, Returning Officers have started the scrutiny of the nomination papers submitted by the candidates contesting in the Elections 2008 for overall 1070 seats of National and Provincial Assemblies.
The process of the scrutiny of the nomination papers would continue till December 3 and after that the candidates contesting in the elections for the National and Provincial Assemblies could appeal against the acceptance or rejection of the nomination papers.
The candidates representing the political parties submitted their nomination papers in thousands while a number of candidates also submitted the nomination papers independently.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Tehreek-e-Istaqlal, Awami Tehreek and three nationalist parties of Balochistan announced the boycott of the elections but Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz, Pakistan Muslim League - Q, Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Awami National Party (ANP), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and other political parties have already announced to take part in the elections.
The candidates have submitted the nomination papers for 342 seats of National Assembly, out of which 272 are general seats while 60 seats reserved for women and 10 for minorities. The nomination papers have also been submitted for 371 seats of the Punjab Assembly, 168 for Sindh Assembly, 124 for NWFP and 65 seats for the Balochistan Assembly.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has extended the date of filing of nomination papers for NA 31 Shangla, NA 38, NA 37, PF 88 and 87 due to worsening law and order situation in these areas. The Secretary Election Commission has asked the nominated candidates to bring the certificate of their party for getting election symbol on the occasion of the scrutiny of the nomination papers.
A number of the political parties have also submitted the lists of nominated candidates in order of priority for seats reserved for women and minorities. The most of the candidates who submitted nomination papers belonged to the parties, which participated in 2002 elections.
Besides others, the important personalities to participate in the upcoming general elections include Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, Kulsoom Nawaz, Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi, Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, Dr. Farooq Sattar, Hamid Nasir Chatta and Chaudhary Amir Hussain. The next general elections would be held on January 8, 2008.