Wednesday, June 03, 2009
By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: No candidate of either the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) or any other political entity will face Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif in the by-election for NA-123 (Lahore) seat, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) record.
The election will be held as per the process begun in May last year and no new candidate can contest it. “A total of six candidates are in the run for the NA-123 seat,” Election Commission Secretary Kanwar M Dilshad told The News.
Apart from Nawaz Sharif, nomination papers of Ilyas Gujjar, Noor Elahi, Amber Shehzada, Kamran Gujjar and Sajid Latif had been found in order during their scrutiny in May last year.Initially, 23 candidates had filed papers for the NA-123 seat. Seventeen of them later quit the race.
The Supreme Court verdict, shooting down the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif to contest elections, restored the decision of the returning officer of May 31, 2008 and the order of the chief election commissioner (CEC), holding nomination papers of Nawaz Sharif in order.
Dilshad said the entire electoral process involving different stages like filing of nominations, withdrawal of candidatures, scrutiny, etc., which had been completed till May last, had been declared valid by the apex court. This means the list of candidates, which had then been finalised, is valid and can’t be changed.
At the time, the election commission secretary said there were a total of six candidates, including Nawaz Sharif, whose papers had been found in order. There will be no fresh filing of nomination papers and all the candidates, who were in the list in May last, would fight the by-poll for the Lahore constituency.
Dilshad said the time of withdrawal of candidature had expired a long time ago, but if a candidate from amongst the six contestants wanted to quit the race, he could retire even four days before the polling date and notify to the authorities concerned accordingly.
The secretary said administrative arrangements were being made to hold the by-election in NA-123. The returning officer has been appointed. The chief election commission will give a date for polling any time, he said. An official said it would be around mid-June.
Source: The news
