PESHAWAR: Amid uncertainty surrounding the July 2 provincial assembly elections in the erstwhile Fata due to pending legislation, a total of 425 people are in the runningfor16 general seats and five reserved for women and non-Muslims.

Under the Constitution (Twenty Fifth Amendment) Act, 2018, the provincial assembly`s elections in tribal merged districts have to be held within a year of the holding of the 2018 gener al elections.

On May 13, the National Assembly passed the Constitution (Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2019, which provided for increasing the provincial assembly seats for former Fata, including 24 general seats and six seats reserved for women and one for non-Muslims.

The bill now awaits passage by the Senate. If it is passed, then the Election Commission of Pakistan will be bound to hold the provincial assembly polls in the former Fata with 18 months ofthe 2018 generalelections.

According to the data released by the Election Commission of Pakistan, 414 nomination papers were accepted by the relevant returning ofñcers for 16 general seats allocated to the seven merged tribal districts and six former Frontier Regions.

There are eight candidates for four seats reserved for women and three for a single seat reserved for non-Muslims.

Thirty women had filed nomination papers but the provincial election commissioner, who is the returning ofñcer for reserved seats,rejected the papers of 22.

Of the nine nomination papers filed for non-Muslim seat, six were turned down.

An official told Dawn that most nomination papers for reserved seats were rejected due to the absence of the aspirants` names in the priority lists of candidates submitted by political parties.

Under the law, the reserved seats are ñlled through proportional representation on the basis of priority lists of candidates by political parties.

A total of 476 nomination papers were filed and 51 of them were rejected during scrutiny, which completed on May 18.

According to the ECP data, the highest number of nomination papers i.e. 39 was accepted inPK-101 Bajaur-II and PK-108 Kurram-I constituencies followed by 33 in PK-113 South Waziristan 1.

The number of candidates in other constituencies include 23 in PK-100 Bajaur-I and PK-102 Bajaur-III each, 20 and 26 in PK-103 Mohmand-I and PK-104 Mohmand-II respectively, 27 in PK-105 Khyber-I, 24 in PK-107 Khyber-III, 22 in PK-109 Kurram-II, 25 in PK-110 Orakzai, 28 in PK-111 North Waziristan-I, 25 in PK-112 North Waziristan-II, 18 in PK-114 South Waziristan-II and 13 in PK-115 former Frontier Regions.

The ECP revealed that six appeals had been filed against the decisions of returning officers before the appellate tribunals.

According to the election schedule, appeals can be decided by the appellate tribunals until May 27.

The last date to withdraw candidature is May 29, while the issuance of the final list of candidates and allocation of symbols will take place on May 30.

Meanwhile, the ECP announced that the last date for receiving applications for postal ballots for government servants and people with disability is June 20 and for that of polling staff June 24.