MUZAFFARABAD: As many as 13,637 nomination papers were received across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) for the forthcoming local bodies (LB) elections of which 454 were rejected for different reasons, the election commission said on Wednesday.

The last date for filing of nomination papers was extended till 4pm on Oct 24 which otherwise was a closed holiday on account of the foundation day of the AJK government.Polling is scheduled to be held on Nov 27.

According to a spokesperson for the commission, 2,570 nominations were received in district Kotli, 2,142 in district Muzaffarabad, 1,800 in district Poonch, 1,506 in district Bagh, 1,387 in district Mirpur, 1,347 in district Bhimber, 991 in district Sudhnoti, 735 in district Neelum, 699 in district Jhelum valley and 460 in district Haveli.

Of these nominations, 107 were rejected in district Poonch, 104 in district Kotli, 65 in district Muzaffarabad, 52 in district Bhimber, 43 in district Mirpur, 39 in district Bagh, 15 in district Haveli, 11 each in district Sudhnoti and district Kotli and 7 in district Neelum, the spokesman said, without citing the reasons for rejections.

EC’s impartiality questioned

Meanwhile, reiterating his reservations over the impartiality of the election commission, Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, the regional secretary general of opposition PML-N on Wednesday took strong exception to what he alleged was the “visible bias” of some election related officials in favour of the ruling PTI.

Citing one example, he questioned how the nomination of a PTI candidate from Bhimber was accepted when the “difference of age mentioned on his computerised national identity card (CNIC) and the secondary school certificate (SSC) purported to have been issued by Lahore Board was 10 years.”

“It’s extremely surprising and a cause for concern that the worthy Returning Officer Bhimber did not order the PTI candidate to produce the original matriculation certificate of Lahore board despite the age difference of 10 years in SSC and CNIC, and instead accepted the nomination fake document bearing candidate on a phone number,” Mr Farooq tweeted along with the images of both documents.

Interestingly, under Section 125-G of the AJK Elections Act, 2020, amended by the present government, appeals can be filed by a candidate or any other objector before the Appellate Tribunal against the rejection of nomination papers by the Returning Officers. However, the section is silent about appeals against acceptance of nomination papers by him.

Prior to the amendment, appeals could be filed against both the rejection or acceptance of nominations papers by the Returning Officer.

The PML-N leader said that the PTI government was compelling the opposition to move the courts in search of justice and fair play in this regard.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2022