Nomination papers of PTI’s Shoaib Shaheen rejected; transgender person gets ECP’s nod

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday decried the rejection of nomination papers of party's key candidates for the upcoming general elections. However, lesser-known faces passed the complex process smoothly.

District returning officers of Islamabad shared a new list, showing that 209 candidates submitted nomination papers in three constituencies. As many as 116 of them were cleared while nomination papers of 93 candidates were rejected.

Shoaib Shaheen, spokesperson and senior member of the PTI Core Committee, was among those whose nomination papers were rejected.

Transgender person Nayab Ali submitted nomination papers for the upcoming general elections. Ali vows to fight for women's rights.

At least 3,345 candidates faced rejection of nomination papers and now it’s time to make appeals against returning officers’ decisions.

Pakistan is heading toward its general elections that are slated to be held in February. During the second phase of the elections process, returning officers stumped the majority of PTI candidates across Pakistan pointing out errors in papers.

Those who faced rejection of nomination papers were no lesser-known politicians but political bigwigs including former PM Imran Khan, his second-in-line Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Zain Qureshi and Meherbano Qureshi, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Murad Saeed, Parvez Elahi, Ali Amin Gandapur, Hammad Azhar and many others.

As the next phase of general elections starts today, beleaguered PTI will make review appeals till January 3 before appellate tribunals.

In the next phases, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will share a revised list of candidates from January 11 and candidates will be allotted electoral symbols.

As PTI remains in dire straits, the Election Commission approved nomination papers of PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shehbaz Sharif, IPP patron-in-chief Jehangir Tareen and many PPP leaders.