RAWALPINDI, Sept 15: As many as 66 candidates from Rawalpindi district and 18 from Islamabad withdrew their nomination papers on Saturday night, the last date fixed for the purpose.

After the withdrawal of nomination papers, now 142 candidates are in the run for nine national assembly seats in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and 10 provincial assembly seats in the Pindi district.

According to the final list provided by the returning officers (ROs) of these constituencies on Sunday, all candidates had been allotted election symbols.

Those who withdrew their papers included the president of PML (Zia group) Ijazul Haq from NA-56. The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has replaced its candidate in NA-53.

Mr Haq, who filed his papers from two constituencies, will now face PML-N leader Raja Zafarul Haq and PPP leader Zamurad Khan Advocate in NA-54 which the PML-Z chief had won thrice in the past elections.

The PPP had earlier awarded ticket to former Punjab minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan in NA-53, but has now replaced him with Sardar Shoaib Mumtaz Khan. Mr Sarwar has now decided to contest from NA- 53 as an independent candidate. He will face Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan besides the PPP candidate.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan will contest from NA-52 and NA-53 constituencies while Sheikh Rashid Ahmed will try his luck from NA-55 and NA-56 constituencies.

The PML-N candidates for the seven NA constituencies are Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, (NA-50); Chaudhry Khurshid Zaman, (NA-51); Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, (NA-52, NA-53); Raja Zafarul Haq, (NA- 54); Sardar Tariq, (NA-55) and Syed Zafar Ali Shah, (NA-56).

The PPP candidates are Ghulam Murtaza Satti, (NA-50); Raja Pervez Ashraf, (NA-51); Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal, (NA-52); Sardar Shoaib Mumtaz, (NA-53); Zamurad Khan Advocate (NA-54), Agha Riazul Islam (NA-55) and Sardar Shaukat Hayat (NA-56).

Similarly, the MMA candidates are Mohammad Sufian Abbasi, (NA-50), Majid Haseeb Shaikh (NA-51), Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui Advocate, (NA-54), Tariq Munir Butt, (NA-55) and Dr Afzal Eizaz, (NA-56).

The Pakistan Awami Tehrik chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri filed his papers from NA-51 (Gujar Khan) while Col Sanaullah Khan (retired) of PAT submitted his papers for NA-54 seat.

The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) candidates Ghulam Qadir, Ahmed Raza Kasuri and Aamir Kiani filed their papers for NA-54, 55 and 56 respectively.

Tameer-i-Pakistan party (TPP) candidate Brig Nusrat Jehan (retired) filed her nomination papers from NA-54 constituency.

The PML-N candidates contesting for provincial assembly seats are Col Mohammad Riaz Satti (retired) (PP-1), Raja Mohammad Ali (PP-2), Raja Arshad Mehmood (PP-6), Chaudhry Mohammad Ayaz (PP-9), Malik Ibrar Ahmad (PP-10), Shahryar Ayaz (PP-11), Shakeel Ahmad Awan (PP-12), Mirza Mansoor Baig (PP-13) and Khaliq Hassan Bhatti (PP-14).

The PPP candidates for the provincial assembly are Raja Shafquat Abbasi (PP-1), Lt-Col Shabir Awan (retired) (PP-2), Barrister Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal (PP-5), Syed Jaffar Hussain Shah (PP-6), Chaudhry Mohammad Waras Khan (PP-9), Haji Chaudhry Masood Akhtar advocate (PP-10), Khalid Nawaz Bobby (PP-11), Amir Fida Raja (PP-12), Ishtiaq Ahmad Mirza (PP-13) and Rashid Naseem Abbasi (PP-14).

The Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) candidates for provincial assembly seats are Saifullah Saifi (PP-1), Raja Abdul Qayyum (PP- 2), Chaudhry Abdur Rehman (PP-5), Maj Mohammad Munir Azam (retired) (PP-6), Syed Shahid Pervez (PP-9), Chaudhry Mohammad Sharif advocate (PP-10), Maulana Abdul Hafeez Hazarvi (PP-11), Mohammad Haneef Chaudhry (PP-12), Fayaz-ul-Hassan Chauhan (PP-13) and Mohammad Zubair Kiyani (PP-14).

The PML-Q candidates for the provincial assembly are Mohammad Saeed Tariq (PP-2), Capt Mushtaq Ahmad Kiyani (retired) (PP-5), Mohammad Basharat Raja (PP-6), Raja Kashif Saleem (PP-9), Raja Rashid Hafeez (PP-11), Ishtiaq Ahmad (PP-12), Dr Tehmina Sajjad (PP-13) and Atif Mehmood Kiyani (PP-14).

The candidates of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) for the provincial assembly are Mohammad Siddique Qureshi (PP-2), Ghulam Yaqoob Malik (PP-5), Syed Tanveer Shah (PP-9), Amjad Ali Khan (PP-10), Sheikh Mohammad Arif (PP-11), Naveed Ahmad Ansari (PP- 12), Naseer Mohammad Khan advocate (PP-13) and Mohammad Farooq Sulehrya (PP-14).

Contestants from the Pakistan Awami Tehrik for the provincial assembly are Haji Mohammad Rashid Chaudhry (PP-1), Raja Abdul Waheed alias Qasim (PP-5), Chaudhry Mazhar Iqbal (PP- 6), Rashid Hameed Kailiani (PP-9), Haji Mohammad Zaheer-uz-Zaman (PP-10), Zahid Farooq Malik (PP-12) and Tariq Kamal Abbasi (PP- 14).

The Pak Watan Party’s candidate for national assembly as well as provincial assembly seats is Syed Zahid Abbas Kazmi (PP- 10).

The Tameer-i-Watan Party’s candidate for provincial assembly is Samina Fazil (PP-14).

There are six independent candidates for the National Assembly and 28 for provincial assembly seats.

The names, constituencies and election symbols of independent candidates contesting for the National Assembly seats are Col Masood Baig (retired), NA-50, star; Col Sahawat Hussain (retired), NA-52, crescent; Maj Mehr Mohammad Ramzan (retired), NA-54, camel; Sheikh Rabia Ahmad, NA-55, crescent; Abdul Hafeez Khokhar, NA-55, flower pot and Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, NA-56, crescent.

The names, constituencies and election symbols of independent candidates contesting for the provincial assembly seats are Samira Satti, PP-1, crescent; Maj Rabnawaz Khan (retired) PP-1, car; Col Mohammad Shabbir Awan (retired), PP-2, crescent; Asma Rahi, PP-2, aeroplane.

From PP-5 and PP-12, there are five and six independent candidates respectively for the provincial assembly.

The independent candidates from PP-5 constituency are Pervez Ahmad Mirza, crown; Chaudhry Azmat Khan, eagle; Raja Anwar, pen; Ziaul Haq Raja, crescent and Mohammad Abid, star.

The independent candidates for PP-12 are Ijaz Khan Jazi, crescent; Chaudhry Adeel Iqbal, racket; Mrs Sarkar Abbas, crown; Mehr Amir Shehzad, star; Malik Wasim Awan, brick and Maj Rana Ahmad Ali (retired), hockey.

From PP-11, there are three independent candidates. They are Inamul Haq Siddiqui, flower pot; Raja Mohammad Ijaz, pen and Mehr Amir Shehzad, star.

The independent candidates from PP-13 constituency are Chaudhry Mohammad Adnan, crescent; Humaira Khan, apple; Abdur Rashid Orakzai, pen and Mehr Amir Sehzad, star.

Other independent candidates are Dr Shah Din Rafique Sheikh whose symbol is bull cart and Mohammad Sajid Abbasi, eagle. Both are contesting from PP-10 constituency.

The candidates for PP-14 constituency are Raja Sikandar Mehmood whose election symbol is crescent and Tameezuddin Nizami whose symbol is torch. Mian Mohammad Ryaz is contesting from PP- 6 whose symbol is car.

Meanwhile, 66 aspirants have withdrawn their candidatures for five national and 10 provincial assembly seats of Rawalpindi district.

According to the final nomination list announced on Sunday, 20 candidates, contesting for national assembly seats, have withdrawn their papers.

From NA-54, Azaz Asif Malik, Chaudhry Abidur Rehman, Haji Mohammad Hanif Tayyab, Dr Anwarul Haq, Raja Kashif Saleem, Col Sanaullah Raja (retired), Mohammad Azam Bhatti and Mohammad Ali Qureshi.

From NA-52 four candidates — Raja Anwar, Barrister Zafar Iqbal, Hazrat Hussain Shah and Shaukat Aziz — have withdrawn their papers while from NA-50, Ahmad Saeed Tariq, Brig Mohammad Taj (retired) and Farooq Abbasi have withdrawn their candidature.

From NA-55, three candidates — Chaudhry Wajahat Ikram, Shah Khawar and Sheikh Rashid Shafique — have withdrawn their papers and from NA-56, Ijazul Haq and Prof Maqsood Hussain have withdrawn their candidature.

From the provincial assemby seats, 46 candidates have withdrawn their papers.

Mohammad Sufian Abbasi, Brig Mohammad Taj (retired), Khurshid Ahmmad Satti, Raja Sikandar Mehmood, Raja Tahir Mehmood Khan, Raja Abdul Waheed, Sardar Mohammad Ishfaq Abbasi advocate, Asim Ryaz Satti, Mohammad Yasin Abbasi and Sajid Ahmad Abbasi have withdrawn their papers from PP-1.

Eight candidates — Javed Ahmad, Hasan Akhtar, Dr Anwarul Haq, Raja Nosherawan, Tariq Mehmood Murtaza, Lt-Col Khudadaad (retired), Mohammad Bilal Yamin and Mohammad Zareef Raja — have withdrawn from PP-2.

Raja Nasir has withdrawn from PP-5 while Marzia Khatoon and Raja Khurram Nadeem have taken back their papers from PP-6.

Haji Zafar has withdrawn from PP-9 while three candidates — Imran Izhar, Mohammad Ali Shehzad and Nadeem Malik — will not contest from PP-10.

Three candidates — Aurangzeb Jailani, Mohammad Haneef and Tahir Pervez — will not contest elections from PP-11 while five candidates — Chaudhry Wajahat Ikram, Dr Mohammad-ul-Haq Awan, Mohammad Asghar Khan, Sardar Abdul Razak and Syed Sakheer Hussain Shah - have withdrawn from PP-12 constituency.

Raja Niaz Ahmad Abbasi, Dr Mohammad Anwar and Irshad Mohammad Khan have withdrawn their candidature from PP-13. Dr Tufail Ahmad Khan, Fayaz Hussain Shah, Musaddiq Mehmood Ghumman, Shahid Mohammad Abbas, Irshad Mohammad Khan, Rahat Masood Qudsi and Raja Shehzad Zulqarnain have also withdrwn their names candidature.

OUR ISLAMABAD REPORTER ADDS: A total number of 18 candidates out of 44 withdrew their nomination papers from the two constituencies of the National Assembly from Islamabad.

During scrutiny, the nomination papers of seven candidates were rejected.

With the withdrawal of 18 candidates, 20 are left in the run of the national assembly seats. The final list of candidates will be put on display outside the offices of the two returning officers on September 16.

Those who withdrew their candidature from NA-48 are Syed Wusat-ul-Hassan Shah of PML-Q, Col Mohammad Younas (retired), independent; Ghulam Mustafa Shaheen, PML-Q; Adnan Kiyani, PML-Q; Mohammad Zahoor Ahmed, PML-N; Prof Ghufran Elahi, independent; Anjum Aqeel, PML-N; Rizwan Sadiq, PML-Q; Mohammad Qasim Mumtaz, independent; Gul Andaz Abbasi, MMA; and Khurshid Ahmed, independent.

Those who withdrew from NA-49 are former federal minister for religious affairs, Haji Haneef Tayyab, Nizam-i-Mustafa Party; Prof Abdul Latif Khaki, MMA; Chaudhary Ilyas Meharban, PML-N; Raja Mohammad Shakeel, PPP; Raja Nasir Ahmed, PML-Q, Adnan Ali Kiyani, PML-Q; Syed Ali Jaffery, independent and Chaudhry Rifat Javed advocate, PML-N.