RAWALPINDI: Thursday is the last day for filing nomination papers for the reserved seats in the justelected local councils in the Rawalpindi district, but the PPP and PTI have all but thrown up their hands on the contest.

Both opposition parties feel so outnumbered by the PML-N juggernaut that they see no point in contesting the reserve seats for women, technocrats, labour and youth in the District Council, the municipal committees and the municipal corporation on February 8.

After all, the ruling PML-N won 35 union councils but actually controls 40 of the 50 union councils elected last November. In the situation, the PPP and the PTI don`t stand a chance to manage even the five elected councillors required towin a woman reserved seat and there are 10 reserved seats for women.

And yet the PML-N has not been able to nominate its candidates to the reserved seats.

A senior party leader claimed that a list of PML-N workers who will get the party ticket existed but admitted that pressure from the elected councillors, and their supporters, for accommodating their choice stood in the way of announcing the leadership`s choice.

`Mostly woman workers have contacted our elected union council chairmen but the chairmen have been told to check with the local PML-N leaders whether the aspirant`s name is on the list before putting his signature to the nomination paper of the aspirant,` said the leader.

When contacted, former PML-N MNA Malik Shakil Awan told Dawnthat the party would announce its candidates `after the completion of scrutiny of the candidates by the returning officers`.

It is noteworthy that each woman candidate needs one union council chairman as proposer and another as seconder for submitting her nomination papers.

More than 40 women, five technocrats, six labour leaders and seven workers have applied for the PML-N ticket for the reserved seats.

Although the PPP does not have the numbers, it has submitted the nomination papers of two of its officials, Azra Younas and Sumaira Gull, for election to the reserved seats.

`We would try our best one seat with the help of other opposition members of the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation,` PPP City President Amir Fida Paracha told Dawn.While PPP, Awami Muslim League and PTI would join hands for that, he said talks were underway with other opposition members and some PML-N members to support the endeavor, if the elections were conducted through secret balloting.

PTI took no interest in putting its candidates in the field.

`We neither invited any application for the reserved seats, nor any party worl(er approached us,` said PTI MPA Arif Abbasi. `Frankly speaking, the party did no homework in this regard. We even did not read the notification issued by provincial government and the election commission about it.

Indeed, Arif Abbasi, who is PTI chairman election committee in Rawalpindi, was not even aware that January 21 (Thursday) was the last day for filing nomination papers for reserved seats.