HYDERABAD        -    As many as 81 candidates have submitted their nomination papers to contest elections on the seats of Chairmen and Vice Chairmen as well as the ward councillors of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) on which elections could not be conducted on January 15. According to the details shared with the media here on Saturday, the Returning officers received the forms of 48 candidates for the 5 seats of Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the Union Committees (UCs) and 33 forms for the 9 seats of ward councillors for April 18 elections.

The elections were not held on those seats because of the deaths of the candidates and vacancy of the nominations. Some nine candidates submitted their nominations to contest for the seat of Chairman and Vice Chairman in UC 5 while 5 candidates submitted their forms for the same seats in UC 17, 12 candidates in UC 118, 16 candidates in UC 119 and 6 candidates in UC 137. Among the candidates, 13 are from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and 12 from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have filed the forms for all the five UCs. Meanwhile, 4 candidates of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) have submitted forms for as many UCs, 3 of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) for 2 UCs, 2 of Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) for as many UCs and one each of Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) for one UC each. Separately, the returning officers have also received nominations from 13 independent candidates who are running from all the UCs. Likewise, only one candidate has submitted form to contest the polls in ward number 4 of UC 18, 6 candidates in ward number 2 of UC 30, 8 candidates in ward number 4 of UC 58, 3 candidates in ward number 2 of UC 85, 5 candidates in ward number 3 of UC 89, 3 candidates in ward number 1 of UC 94 and 7 candidates in ward number 4 of UC 119.

The returning officer did not receive any nomination for the ward numbers 1 and 2 of UC 62. According to the notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on March 17, the process of scrutiny would be completed by March 28 while the candidates could file appeals against rejection of their nomination by March 31. The appellate tribunals will give their decisions against the appeals by April 4 and the revised list of the candidates will be published on April 5. The candidates can withdraw from the contest by April 6 while the ECP will allot the election symbols on April 7.