ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday challenged the nomination of former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Yousaf Raza Gillani for Senate.
The PPP has fielded Gillani, originally from Multan, from Islamabad as a joint candidate of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the 10-party opposition alliance seeking to oust the government.
Fareed Rehman, a PTI Senate hopeful from Islamabad, has accused Gillani of concealing the facts in the papers. Gillani, he said, failed to mention his conviction in a contempt of court case back in 2012.
His petition noted that Gillani doesn’t fulfill the requirements of Article-62 of the Constitution.
Embroiled in controversy over the presidential ordinance on open voting, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is set to hold elections on March 3.
A total of 52 senators in the House of 104 are set to retire on March 11 on completion of their six-year term. The number includes four of the eight senators from the former Federally AdminisÂtered Tribal Areas (FATA).
As the seats representing FATA will not be filled due to the merger of the tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in May 2018, the Senate strength will shrink to 100.
Polling will, therefore, be held to elect 48 members: 12 each from KP and Balochistan, 11 each from Punjab and Sindh, and two from Islamabad.
The legislators will also vote to elect seven members on general seats including two women and two technocrats in the four provinces. Besides, the election on one minority seat each in KP and Balochistan will also be conducted.
More than 65 percent of the senators due to retire belong to the opposition parties.
A total of 170 candidates have filed nomination papers all over the country for 48 seats, according to the data released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
As many as 70 candidates, including 44 from the PTI, filed their nomination papers on Monday which was the last date for submission of the papers.
