As many as 106 candidates belonging to different political parties submitted their nomination papers for the 6 seats of National Assembly and 14 seats of Provincial Assembly here on Thursday.Meanwhile, 164 more candidates have also obtained nomination forms in Rawalpindi District for contesting the general elections 2013.

The 40 candidates of different political parties such as Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Awami Muslim League (AML), MQM, Jammat-e-Islami, PML-Q, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) have submitted their nomination papers to the Returning Officers (ROs) to test their fate for 7 seats of NA in Rawalpindi District. These included PML-N former MNA Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Awami Muslim League (AML) President Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Jammat-e-Islami (JI) Raza Ahmed Shah, Rizwan Ahmed, Ghulam Murtaza Satti, Raja Israr Abbasi and Mian Ateeq and others.

Similarly, 66 candidates returned their nomination forms to ROs to contest general elections 2013 from 14 seats of Punjab Assembly.
Raja Rashid Hafeez of PTI, Babar Sultan Jadoon, Chaudhry Sarwar Gujjar, Rehana Riaz, Mirza Khalid Mehmood and Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam were the prominent candidates.

A day earlier, PPP nominee Col (retd) Muhammad Shabbir Awan also submitted his nomination papers to RO Muhammad Jahangir Mir from PP-2 along with his lawyers Raja M. Sittar Ullah and Raja Muhammad Nazir Advocate.

According to Deputy Election Commissioner Qazi Zahoor Ahmed, some 164 candidates of different political parties obtained their nomination papers where a total of 106 candidates returned their nomination papers in Rawalpindi District.

The data, provided by DEC, shown that 5 candidates returned their nomination forms to RO to contest elections for NA-50; 10 candidates for NA-51; 3 for NA-52; 5 for NA-53; 5 for NA-54; 8 for NA-55 and 4 candidates returned their nomination papers for NA-56.

For Provincial Assembly seats, 4 candidates of different political parties returned their nomination papers for PP-1; 2 for PP-2; 3 for PP-3; 1 for PP-4; 10 for PP-5; 4 for PP-6; 9 for PP-7; 4 each for PP-8, PP-9 and PP-10; 8 for PP-11; 5 for PP-12, 4 for PP-13 and 3 candidates returned their nomination papers for PP-14 constituency.

Some 107 candidates returned back their nomination forms to the ROs in Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal to contest the general elections 2013 for National and Provincial Assembly seats. On the other hand, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) extended the last date of obtaining or returning the nomination papers from March 29 to March 31, 2013.

The announcement on the part of renowned Queeta based lawyer Ali Ahmed Kurdin a private TV talk show that he would contest elections 2013 from NA-55, an important seat of Rawalpindi, also rang alarm bells for the PML-N, PTI, PPP, PML-Q, JI, MQM and other political parties. Ali Ahmed Kurd got popularity because of his fiery speeches against General Mush and those who created hindrance in way of restoring judges of apex courts in 2007.

He also claimed that he would run his electioneering campaign from NA-55 without spending even a single penny wondering many. He hoped people would vote for him.