­ISLAMABAD - More than 12,000 candidates filed their nomination papers for the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies seats for contesting general elections 2018 to be held on July 25.

Earlier today (Monday), the Election Commission extended the time for filing the nomination papers for two hours from 1600 hrs till 1800 hrs.

According to the ECP, the particulars submitted by the candidates were sent to relevant institutions, including NADRA which will be used by the ROs during the scrutiny process started from today (Tuesday) and will be concluded on June 19.

Candidates could file appeals against rejection or acceptance of papers by 22nd of this month. The Appellate Tribunals will decide the appeals by 27th, after which the revised list of candidates will be published on 28th of this month.

Candidates can withdraw their papers by 29th of this month and the final list of candidates will be published the same day.

Election symbols will be allotted to the contesting candidates on 30th of this month while the polling for both National Assembly and provincial assemblies will be held on 25th of next month.

Meanwhile, all major political parties submitted their priority lists of candidates for minorities seats to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and newly-reconstituted Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) submitted ten names each for a total of 10 seats which are allotted to each party in the National Assembly according to their relative strength.

The PPP submitted nine names while the PML-N submitted seven. The Pervez Musharraf-led All Pakistan Muslim League, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Awami National Party (ANP), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) also submitted their lists.

The parties also submitted lists for the 60 reserved women's seats in the NA and provincial assemblies ahead of the deadline for submission of nominees, according to the revised schedule, which ended today.

The electoral rolls of Election Commission of Pakistan show that only 42.42 million women are registered to voters’ lists till September 2017 ignoring 12.17 million eligible women which are yet to be included.

According to the official data, a total of 97.01 million citizens are registered as voters including 54.59 million men and 42.42 million women voters.

The figures show that men comprise 56.27 per cent of the current lists while women contribute only 43.7 per cent. According to ECP , there were 35.606 million women registered in electoral lists in General Elections (GE) 2008 while in GE 2013, 37.636 million women voters were enrolled, followed by 40.708 million in 2016 and 42.42 million in 2017.

According to ECP data in 2017, there have 24.518 million women are registered in Punjab, followed by 9.199 million in Sindh, o.6 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1.5 million in Balochistan, 0.8 million in FATA and 0.3 million in Islamabad Capital Territory.

The official data further revealed that in 2013 voters electoral rolls, 1.5 million new voters were registered in Punjab after 2008, 0.91 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 0.58 million in Balochistan, 0.11 million in Sindh and 0.17 million in Fata. Likewise, in the new voter lists till 2017, 2.94 million new women were registered in Punjab, 0.75 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 0.7 million in Sindh, 0.21 million in FATA and 0.14 million in Balochistan during this time span.