ECP requests 350,000 military troops for General Election 2018

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has requested deployment of 350,000 military troops for the upcoming General Election 2018, which is scheduled to be held on July 25.

The electoral body has forwarded a summary to the Ministry of Defence for the deployment of troops. Sources shared that the military will be deployed to maintain law and order during the election.

Candidates' details to be made public

Moreover, the ECP has also decided to make the information pertaining to candidates contesting in the polls available online. The details of candidates' assets and their affidavits will be made available to the voters, sources said. On the other hand, the returning officers (RO) have started the process of scanning data and sending it to Election Commission Secretariat.

ECP constitutes 20 tribunals to hear appeals

On Tuesday, the ECP constituted 20 tribunals to hear appeals against rejection of nomination papers by candidates for the forthcoming General Election 2018 after the completion of the scrutiny process.

According to the electoral body, high court judges will be part of the appellate tribunals, which will start functioning from today. The ECP has formed six tribunals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight in Punjab, four in Sindh, and two in Balochistan.

The scrutiny of nomination papers concluded Tuesday. As per the election schedule, appeals against rejection or acceptance of nomination papers can be filed by June 22. The decision on the appeals will be made by June 27, after which the final list of the candidates will be shared on June 28.

The last date for withdrawal of candidature will be June 29. Moreover, the date for allocation of electoral symbols and publication of the final list of contesting candidates will be June 30. Polling for General Election 2018 will be held on July 25.

Nominations of political bigwigs accepted

Several key political leaders managed to get closer to contesting the polls while many hopefuls suffered a setback on Tuesday as returning officers (RO) across the country scrutinised their nomination papers.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) concluded the scrutiny of nomination papers on Tuesday as per the revised election schedule. The appeals against the decisions of ROs can be filed by June 22, which will then be decided by June 27.

Among bigwigs from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), party president and former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif's nomination papers for NA-132 (Lahore), NA-249 (Karachi), NA-250 (Karachi) and NA-3 (Swat) were accepted by the RO.

PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz's candidacy for PP-173 has also been approved. On Monday, RO Asif Bashir had cleared the way for Maryam to contest for Lahore's NA-125 constituency as well after dismissing all objections raised during scrutiny of her nomination papers.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan's nomination papers for NA-131 (Lahore) and NA-243 (Karachi) were accepted after the RO dismissed the objections against his candidacy.

However, the PTI chief, PML-N leaders Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, along with Ayesha Gulalai, who had been affiliated with the PTI in the past, suffered a setback in NA-53, Islamabad where the RO rejected their candidacy as they failed to properly fill out the affidavit to be submitted along with the nomination papers.

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