Parliamentary panel rejects new delimitations

Recommends scrapping 24th amendment, holding next polls on previous delimitations

ISLAMABAD: Parliament and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) are all set to lock horns over fresh delimitation of constituencies as a parliamentary working group – constituted to look into the controversy over discrepancies in the new demarcations – has rejected the proposed boundaries.

The working group, comprising members of different parties, has recommended the bipartisan main parliamentary panel to scrap the 24th Constitutional Amendment, which allows the ECP to conduct fresh delimitations on the basis of provisional results of the last year’s population census.

The ECP on March 5 published draft delimitations for public feedback and asked the general public to file complaints by April 3 against the newly-proposed boundaries.

Around 349 complaints have been filed so far. The ECP is scheduled to conduct hearing of these complaints and dispose them of by May 3 before notifying new delimitations.

However, the new development in the Saturday’s meeting of the parliamentary sub-panel has left a big question mark over the fate of the new delimitations.

Soon after the ECP released new delimitations for public scrutiny, some political parties and election observers in non-government organisations (NGOs) highlighted discrepancies in the fresh marking of boundaries in certain constituencies.



When the matter was raised in the National Assembly, the speaker constituted a parliamentary panel, headed by Deputy Speaker Javed Murtaza Abbasi, to look into the matter.

This main panel in its maiden meeting constituted a sub-committee tagged as working group – headed by the ruling party’s Daniyal Aziz – to formulate recommendations for the main committee to be later presented to the National Assembly.

The Daniyal-led sub-penal in its sixth and final meeting on Saturday adopted five recommendations.

It called for scraping the 24th amendment and bringing another amendment to allow the next general elections to be held on the basis of the delimitations currently in use.

It also recommended bringing changes in the relevant law that prescribes procedure for hearing of objections to any fresh delimitation. This implies that the panel wants taking away this authority from the ECP and vesting some other body with the power to hear complaints against any new delimitation.

The panel also demanded the constitution of a high-powered commission through presidential ordinance, to be later adopted by parliament, to investigate the Panama Papers leaks and the motive behind the ECP’s committee that marked fresh boundaries of the constituencies.

The commission may exercise its authority to arrest members on the five ECP committees who drafted these delimitations. The penal also recommended the main committee to approach the Supreme Court and file a petition under Article 184 against the ECP.



Daniyal, the head of the sub-panel that finalised the recommendations, told The Express Tribune that some institutions, including the ECP, befooled parliament by exerting pressure on it to pass the 24th amendment in haste.

He said the amendment was passed on the assumption that the final results of the population census would be notified by April this year. He said the Constitution stipulates that elections should be held on the basis of delimitations carried out in accordance with the latest population census.

“If results of the population census are notified by April, and elections are held on the basis of previous delimitations then it will put a question mark on the legality of such polls,” he added.

He said during one of the meetings of his panel, certain officials of the Statistics Division who are involved in census exercise, said they were yet to complete post-evaluation survey for the last year’s population census. It takes five to six months after post-evaluation survey before census results can be finalised.

After these revelations were made during cross-questioning of the officials, the Statistics Division did not attend further meetings of his committee.

“Similarly, the ECP also declined to provide details to the committee about its officials who were involved in the delimitation exercise nor did they provide the penal details of procedures adopted for marking of the boundaries,” he added.

According to him, there were major discrepancies in hundreds of freshly-marked constituencies both for national and provincial assemblies.



“We should institute cases against the ECP and others for befooling parliament. They should be tried before an inquiry commission and the Supreme Court and be asked on whose behest they have committed all this.

“The panel has sent its recommendations to the main committee headed by the NA deputy speaker for action. I am not sure when the deputy speaker-led main committee will be convened,” he added.