ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is likely to complete the process of scrutiny for 52 seats of the Upper House of the Parliament (on Feb 18) today.
Three-member staff at a special cell headed by Special Assistant to Chairman Dr. Muhammad Iqbal is working round the clock to furnish the required record for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Senate elections are scheduled to be held on March 05, 2015 and 23 candidates from Punjab, 28 candidates from Sindh, 39 candidates from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 42 from Balochistan submitted their nomination papers. Furthermore, nine candidates submitted their nomination papers for one seat in the federal capital and 43 candidates for four seats in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on Feb 19 and 20.
The nomination papers for Senate elections are required to be scrutinised according to Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution. It is necessary for candidates to provide accurate information in nomination papers about their income tax returns, tax filing, national tax numbers, bank accounts details, financial transactions and others.
ECP forwarded the names of 184 candidates to FBR for verification of information submitted by the candidates. In pursuance to the ECP’s request Chairman FBR established a special cell headed by Special Assistant (SA) to Chairman, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal to accomplish the assigned job.
Appeals against the candidates can be filed on February 23 and 24 with the Secretary ECP or the concerned provincial Election Commissioner. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is February 28 and the list of final contesting candidates would also be published the same day.
