The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday rejected the nomination papers of Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Food Security Jamshed Iqbal Cheema for the NA-133 (Lahore) by-poll over anomalies found in his candidature.

The nomination papers of his wife, Musarrat Cheema, who was his covering candidate were also rejected for similar reasons.

According to Returning Officer (RO) Syed Basit Ali Shah, the proposers for the two were not residents of the constituency as required under the election laws.

The anomalies were found during the scrutiny of papers at the ECP offices after objections to their nominations had been raised by PML-N’s Advocate Naseer Bhutta and others. Baffled at the anomalies, the couple had requested the ECP to adjourn scrutiny of their papers until Saturday (today).

The two were among 21 candidates who had filed their nomination papers, along with the PML-N’s Shaista Pervaiz Malik and PPP’s Chaudhry Aslam Gill, after the NA-133 seat fell vacant on the death of the PML-N’s Pervaiz Malik.

According to a statement issued by the RO, seen by Dawn.com, a total of 24 nomination papers were filed with 17 accepted and seven rejected while 14 candidates were validly nominated including PPP's Gill and PML-N's Malik.