The Election Commission of Pakistan on Monday (ECP) begins the election process and start receiving nomination papers for the Senate elections for federal territory, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and other four provinces.

According to the schedule announced by the ECP, the returning officer will continue receiving nomination papers till Tuesday. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be carried out on Thursday and Friday (Feb 16 and 17).

The appeals regarding objections will be disposed off on February 22 and 23 and the final list of candidates will also be announced on February 24.

The elections are being held for 54 seats, including 11 from each province, four Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), two Federal Capital and four minority members (one from each province to be elected for the first time).

Members of the provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan will each elect seven members for general seats of Senate, two for seats reserved for women and two technocrats including Ulema.

The members of National Assembly will elect one member to senate against general seat and another seat reserved for technocrats including Ulema, from the Federal Capital.

The National Assembly members from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas will elect four members to Senate against general seats. In addition, Provincial Assembly members of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan will elect to Senate one member on seats reserved for non-Muslims.

A total of 50 Senators will retire in March after completing their respective terms, including 11 from each province, four from FATA and two from the Federal Capital.

On the other side, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Sunday announced seven candidates including a sitting lady Member National Assembly for the next month Senate elections.

According to a notification issued by the PML-N central media cell here, Mohammad Ishaq Dar has been awarded party ticket to contest the Senate elections on the seats reserved for technocrats while Kamran Michael, Punjab Minister for Finance, Minorities Affairs, Human Rights and Women Development nominated on the seat reserved for minorities.

On the seat reserved for women, a sitting MNA, Begum Nuzhat Aamir Sadiq has been awarded the party ticket, who according to sources within the party will resign from the National Assembly soon.

They said that Begum Nuzhat Sadiq, who is currently the party's MNA on reserve seat, would be replaced in the Lower House by Seema Jilani from Rawalpindi on the directives of the party leadership.
On general seats, the party has awarded tickets to four candidates namely M.

Hamza, Zulfiqar Khosa, Rafiq Rajwana and Zafarullah Dhadla.

Earlier, the sources said that the scrutiny committee headed by PML-N chairman Raja Zafar-ul-Haq interviewed various applicants but finalised the seven as the most suitable candidates.
It was also learnt that former senator of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Enver Baig had also applied for the PML-N ticket, whose candidature was, however, rejected.

The committee also ignored the application of the PML-N's former secretary information and the spokesman Siddiqul Farooq to contest the Senate polls on the party's ticket.