ECP gives government seven days to amend Constitution

Yaqoob says revamping of constituencies must start by Nov 1

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has given a seven-day deadline to the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry to get the Constitution amended by Parliament to provide legal cover to fresh delimitation of electoral constituencies before the final results of population census.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Sardar Raza chaired another meeting on Friday to discuss the delimitation of the constituencies for the coming general elections, due next year, in accordance with the latest census data.

The Constitution stipulates that the ECP can revamp the constituencies only after census data is officially notified. The new election laws say that the ECP has to finalise the polling scheme – and delimitations – at least six months before the general elections.

In the current scenario, the general elections are due in August-September 2018. So the ECP would be required to complete all its preparations by April 2018 in accordance with the census 2017. However, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) says it would notify the final census data in April next year.

”If the commission starts the delimitation process from November 1, it would hardly be able to complete it by April 2018 deadline,” ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob said. “The ECP cannot start work on delimitation unless legal provision permitted it do so,” he added.



Speaking to reporters after the ECP meeting, which was also attended by secretaries of the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry and the Statistics Division besides the chief statistician of the PBS, Yaqoob said Rs4 billion would be required for fresh delimitation and revision of electoral rolls.

The last delimitation exercise was carried out before the 2002 general election. In two subsequent elections in 2008 and 2013, ‘re-description’ of the constituencies was done because no population census had taken place till then.

Meanwhile, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has called parliamentary leaders of all political parties represented in Parliament on November 1 to discuss the issue.