ECP issues poll schedule for tribal districts

People will use right of franchise on 16 K-P Assembly seats

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday issued the schedule for the election of 16 seats of the tribal districts, formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seats.

This will be the first provincial election in the tribal districts after its merger into K-P. According to the issued schedule, the elections will take place on July 2.



The elections will be held in: PK-100 Bajaur-I, PK-101 Bajaur-II, PK-102 Bajaur-III, PK-103 Mohmand-I, PK-104 Mohmand-II, PK-105 Khyber-I, PK-106 Khyber-II, PK-107 Khyber-III, PK-108 Kurram-I, PK-109 Kurram-II, PK-110 Orakzai, PK-111 North Waziristan-I, PK-112 North Waziristan-II, PK-113 South Waziristan-I, PK-114 South Waziristan-II, and PK-115 Ex-Frontier regions.

Candidates can file their nomination papers with the returning officers (RO) from Thursday to Saturday, with May 18 the last date for scrutiny of the nomination papers by the ROs.
Furthermore, May 22 has been set as the last date for filing appeals against the ROs decisions on the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers.

Candidates can withdraw their nomination papers by May 29, and a revised list of candidates will be published on the same day. The election symbols for candidates will be allotted on May 30.
The ECP has directed that no posting or transfers of any officers should be made in the tribal districts till the names of returning candidates are published.

The commission has also directed that no government functionary or elected representative should announce any development scheme for constituencies where the elections are scheduled to take place.



The erstwhile tribal areas, which has been hit by terrorism, were merged with K-P as part of a reforms package aimed at bringing them on a par with other parts of the country.

The ECP had notified in January the share of tribal districts in the provincial assembly seats. The decision was in line with Article 106 of the Constitution amended through the 25th Amendment in May last year and the promulgation of an ordinance to avert disenfranchisement of scattered tribal regions.