| Candidates for the Senate's seven general seats from NWFP were elected unopposed on Saturday after the chief election commissioner rejected nomination papers of a PML-Q candidate. After Sardar Tanveer Ilyas' nomination papers were rejected, seven candidates - three each from the ANP and the PPP and one from the JUI-F -- were left in the race, who were all elected unopposed. The senators-elect include ANP's Information Secretary Zahid Khan, Central Vice President Muhammad Adeel and Abdul Nabi Bangash, while PPP's Gulzar Ahmad Khan, Waqar Ahmad Khan and Sardar Ali Khan and JUI-F's Haji Ghulam Ali were elected to the Senate. The Election Commission confirmed the elections. Eleven senators from the NWFP will retire on March 11, 2009, which will result in the vacation of seven general seats, two seats reserved for technocrat and two for women. A total of 11 candidates had filed their nominations for the seven general seats. But following an understating reached on Friday between the PPP and the PML-N, the latter withdrew the nomination papers of Iqbal Zafar Jhagra for a general seat. In return, the PPP had assured the PML-N to support Jhagra for a seat reserved for technocrats. |