By Xinhua
Islamabad : A total of 43 candidates to the office of the President filed nomination papers on Thursday, the Election Commission (EC) said.
Nomination papers were filed with the returning officer/presiding officer at Islamabad, the federal capital and with each of the presiding officers at Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar, three provincial capital cities, according to an EC statement.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s current five-year term as president will expire on Nov. 15 and the election for next president by national and provincial assemblies will be held on Oct. 6.
Qazi Muhammad Farooq, Pakistan’s Chief Election Commissioner received nomination papers at Islamabad, and the respective Chief Justices of the High Courts in the country’s provinces received nomination papers from the candidates.
No nomination paper was filed in Pakistan’s southwest province Baluchistan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, serving as one of the proposers, submitted Musharraf’s nomination papers on Thursday morning.
The major opposition party Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the lawyers community also fielded their own presidential candidates, namely PPP President Makhdoom Amin Fahim and retired justice Wajihuddin Ahmed.
Kanwar Dilshad, Federal Secretary of the EC, Thursday informed that a total of 71 nomination papers were filed by 43 candidates, among which 41 papers were filed by 15 candidates in Islamabad.
Dilshad said that the scrutiny of all the nomination papers will be held by the Chief Election Commissioner/Returning office at Islamabad on Sept. 29 in the election commission secretariat in the presence of the candidates, proposers and seconders.