Election campaign gathers pace
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—Election campaign is hoped to gain further momentum with the issuance of the final list of candidates for Election 2008. Election Commission of Pakistan will issue the final list of candidates for Election 2008 on Sunday, private TV channel reported.
With the completion of this phase, the Election Commission would concentrate on election arrangements across the country by training the staffers and dispatching necessary materials to the Returning Officers. More than 13,000 candidates had filed nomination papers with the Returning Officers between November 20-November 26 and after going through the scrutiny process and disposal of appeals against acceptance and rejection of the papers, the process would reach culmination with the issuance of the final list.
The final list of candidates of NA 41 and NA 42 with their allotted symbols was issued in South Waziristan Agency. This was stated by the returning officer of the agency in a meeting with mediamen. He said the environment is quite conducive for holding of election 2008. After withdrawal of nomination papers, four candidates are in the run for NA 42 while eleven candidates will contest in NA 41.
In all a total of 11 candidates left in arena for two seats of national assembly, NA: 41 & NA: 42, in South Waziristan Agency. Returning Officer in the area, Khaista Rehman told newsmen that final list of contesting candidates has been release and election symbols have been allotted to all of them. He informed newsmen that in NA: 41 a total of eleven (11) candidates are left for contesting elections.
Whereas in NA: 42 only four candidates are in field . About seven candidates had filed papers in NA: 42 out of which three withdrew their nomination and four are left for elections. Returning Officer said atmosphere is conducive for holding of elections in the agency and urged voters to use their right of franchise in free and peaceful manner.
As many as 56 candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers from two national and five provincial assemblies constituencies of Abbottabad district. Most of the candidates who opted to withdraw were from lawyers community while some of others were affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami which has decided to boycott the elections. Returning officers have also allotted symbols to the independent candidates.
Five candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers from NA-17 Abbottabad-1 including Ali Afzal Khan Jadoon, Shamaroz Khan Jadoon, Habib-ur- Rehman, Saeed Ahmed and Ghazanfar Ali Abbassi. Similarly eight candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers from national assembly constituency NA-18 Abbottabad- 11 including Sardar Gul Khatab, Sardar Sher Bahadur Khan, Waheed Akhtar, Sardar Muhammad Idrees, Ijaz Zar Khan Jadoon, Shoukat Ali Tanoli, Tahir Javed Abbassi and Khurshid Azam. Seven candidates from Provincial assembly constituency PF-44 have withdrawn their nomination papers including Jehanzeb Khan, Sardar Zakir Hussain, Q zi Muhammad Arshad Advocate, Ghulam Mustafa Hussain Qureshi, Raja Aurangzeb Khan, Gul Khan and Malik Abdul Farooq, while eight candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers from PF-45 including Habib-ur-rehman Abbassi Advocate, Saeed Ahmed Abbassi , Ghazanfar Ali Abbassi, Muhammad Akram Abbasi, Muhammad Zareed Qureshi Advocate, Moulana Muhammad Usman Abbassi, Aamir Qureshi and Abdul Jabbar Abbassi.
Thirteen candidates have withdrawn from PF-46 including Masood-ur-Rehman Tanoli Advocate, Haji Abdul Ghafoor, Pir Khan Tanoli Advocate , Iftikhar Khan Tanoli Advocate, Malik Manzoor Hussain Advocate, Abid Mehmood Lodhi, Sohail Ayub Tanoli Advocate, Muhammad Asad Khan Jadoon Advocate, Sabir Tanoli Advocate, Ali Afzal Jadoon, Dildar Khan Tanoli, Malik Muhammad Sarwar Khan Advocate and M. Javed Khan Tanoli.