ECP to publish preliminary lists of candidates on Thursday

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will publish preliminary lists of candidates on Thursday (tomorrow) while they can withdraw their nomination papers by Friday.

According to election schedule, today (Wednesday) is the last day to dispose of appeals filed against acceptance or rejection of nomination papers for the general elections by Appellate Tribunals.

These tribunals are being headed by judges of the High Courts.

The revised list of candidates will also be published on Friday.

The electoral symbols will be allotted on Saturday while polling for general elections will be held on 8th of next month.

Meanwhile, Caretaker Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Solangi on Wednesday reiterated the commitment that general elections would eventually be held on February 8 in the country.

Talking to the media, he said that in the past elections were conducted even in the worst conditions.

Murtaza Solangi pointed out that the current situation in the country was much better than the years 2008 and 2013.

He said that the government had been in constant contact with the Election Commission of Pakistan since the first meeting of the Caretaker Cabinet.

The minister said the communication with ECP was underway on the daily basis and his visit was part of the routine communication process.

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He said he had not met the Chief Election Commissioner Raja Sikandar Sultan.

He expressed the optimism that security situation in the country would further improve in the coming days.

He said that Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ECP would provide information regarding the foreign media teams’ arrival in Pakistan for election coverage.

To a question, he said that election activities would hopefully pick the momentum after the announcement of the candidates of the political parties as all parties were commencing their election campaigns now.

On January 15, the Muslim League (N) had also announced a rally, he said and added election activities would further accelerate in days ahead.

Replying to a question, he said that technical problems regarding the Internet, had been surfacing even before the caretaker government.

The minister clarified that the reason for the recent Internet outage was just technical, and not the political.

He said that more details regarding Internet shutdown could be obtained from Pakistan Telecommunications Authority.

The minister said that the portfolio of the Ministry of Interior was held by the Prime Minister.

He said that under the Rules of Business, when there was no minister nominated for a Ministry, its portfolio would be with the prime minister.