Zubair Qureshi
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan will contest elections from 80 of 101 Union Councils (UCs) of Islamabad in the upcoming local government elections scheduled for December 31.
This was said by the JI leader Nasrullah Randhawa in a statement Monday. The JI panel will contest elections from the UCs under its election symbol ‘Tarazoo’ or ‘Measurement Scale,’ he further said adding the residents of the federal capital were fed up with the successive governments of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and he was sure that they would vote the JI panel this time. Meanwhile some 4,403 candidates filed nomination papers for the local government elections in the federal capital, according to the District Election Commission of Islamabad.
According to the election commission record, 1,074 individuals have filed nomination papers as joint candidates for chairman and vice chairman for the total 101 union councils while 1,945 have submitted nominations for 606 general seats– six each for every union council. Besides, 546 candidates intend to contest for 202 reserved seats for women, 344 for 101 seats reserved for youth, and 348 and 146 for 101 reserved seats for labours, peasants and 146 for 101 seats for non-Muslims.
Scrutiny of nomination papers will beginon Nov 15 (today) and shall continue till Nov 18 and appeals against acceptance and rejection of the nomination papers can be filed from Nov 21 to Nov 23. The appeals will be decided by Nov 30.
The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers will be Nov 30, while election symbols will be allotted on Dec 1. Polling will be held on Dec 31.
According to the electoral list, a total of 984,877 voters will cast their votes for the elections of chairman, vice chairman, councillors and lady councillors in 101 union councils in the federal capital. They include 518,193 male and 466,284 female voters.All the major political parties including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), and Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) have started a rigorous election campaign.The local governments in Islamabad completed their five-year term in February 2021 and under the law the elections were supposed to be held within four months after expiry of their term. The polls were to be held on Dec 24, but were rescheduled on the request of the Christian community.
