- Sindh CM requests all parties including MQM-P to vote for Zardari in Presidential election
- PTI says candidate from Balochistan ‘very strong message’ for national unity from jailed Imran Khan
KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: Nomination papers of former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai were filed on Saturday for the presidential election scheduled to be held on March 9.
Asif Ali Zardari is the joint candidate of PPP-PML-N for the President’s slot and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah filed his nomination with the Sindh High Court Chief Justice on Saturday.
The Sindh CM along with 30 MPAs, including Faryal Talpur, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Sharjeel Inaam Memon and others reached the Sindh High Court and submitted Asif Zardari’s nomination before SHC Chief Justice Aqeel Abbassi, who is the presiding officer for the presidential election.
He has proposed while Syed Nasir Shah seconded the nomination papers of Asif Ali Zardari for presidential elections to be held on March 09, 2024.
On the other hand, PkMAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai has been nominated by the PTI-SIC-backed lawmakers and his nomination papers were filed for the presidential elections, which will be held on March 9. The scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on Monday.
Similarly, the nomination papers for both candidates were filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday. Farooq H. Naik and Saleem Mandviwala filed Zardari’s papers while PTI leaders – Ali Muhammad Khan, Sardar Latif Khosa and Omar Ayub Khan filed the papers for Achakzai before Chief Justice IHC Aamer Farooq – the presiding officer for the presidential elections.
According to the ECP schedule, polling for the presidential election will be held on March 9 from 10 am to 4 pm, while candidates vying for the constitutional post of the country can submit their nomination papers until Saturday noon in Islamabad and four provincial capitals – Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.
Nomination papers will undergo scrutiny by the returning officer in Islamabad by 10 am on Monday (March 4).
The candidates have the option to withdraw their nomination papers before the returning officer in Islamabad until noon on Tuesday (March 5).
On the same day, the list of candidates will be made public.
Talking to media persons after submitting nomination papers, the Sindh chief minister said that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will request all parties including MQM-Pakistan to vote for Asif Ali Zardari in the Presidential election. He said that the party has requested MQM-P members to vote for PPP’s candidates for the election of speaker and deputy Speaker election.
Replying to a question regarding MQM’s demand for amendment to Local Government Act, he said that in Sindh Local Bodies were already powerful and MQM might have demanded local government powers for Punjab.
CM Murad Shah said that PPP will approach legal forums for its grievances regarding polls.
Nomination of Mahmood Achakzai for presidential polls
PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan confirmed that the PTI-backed SIC members have nominated Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai as their candidate for the presidential election, adding that they have submitted his nomination papers in the Islamabad High Court.
He added that having a candidate from Balochistan a deprived province was a “very strong message” for national unity from the jailed PTI founder Imran Khan. “It is Imran Khan who is mixing Pashtun with Punjabi, Baloch with Sindhi and Sindhi with Urdu-speaking and Kashmiri with Gilgiti […],” he wrote in a post on X.
The scrutiny of the nomination papers would be conducted on March 4 at Islamabad while election is scheduled on March 09, 2024.
The president is elected by an electoral college comprising members of the Senate, the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. Voting is held through a secret ballot.
It is to be noted that the incumbent President Dr Arif Alvi is already on an extended tenure after completing his five-year term on Sept 9 last year.
Article 44(1) of the Constitution says that the president will hold office for a term of five years from the day he assumes charge, but he continues to hold the office until a successor is chosen.
Dr Alvi is the country’s fourth democratically elected president to complete the five-year term. The three presidents before Dr Alvi who completed their full terms were Chaudhary Fazal Elahi (fifth president, from 1973 to 1978), Asif Ali Zardari (11th, from 2008 to 2013), and Mamnoon Hussain (12th, from 2013 to 2018).
Therefore, Dr Alvi is the third consecutive president to have a full term and the first one to have an extended term due to an incomplete electoral college, which comprises the National Assembly, Senate and the four provincial assemblies.
