Pakistan Presidential polls Asif Ali Zardari, Mahmood Achakzai file nomination papers

Islamabad: PPP and the PML-N joint candidate Asif Ali Zardari and PTI backed Sunni Ittehad Council’s candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai have filed nomination for the presidential polls in Pakistan, scheduled on March 9.

The scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on Monday. The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is March 5 and the final list of candidates will be published on March 6, The Express Tribune reported. Earlier in the day, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) nominated the Pashtun­khwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai as their presidential nominee.

Mahmood Khan Achakzai had won the National Assembly seat from the NA-266 constituency in Balochistan’s Kila Abdullah-cum-Chaman.

PTI founder Imran Khan, who is lodged in jail in various cases, has urged his lawmakers to vote for Mahmood Khan Achakzai.

The president is elected by an electoral college comprising members of the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. Voting is held through a secret ballot. Though Pakistan President Arif Alvi’s tenure completed on September 8, in absence of the electoral college required to elect the president, he is still in office.  (IANS)

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