Delimitation for new local bodies starts this week

List of delimitated local body seats will be released on October 13

RAWALPINDI:

The District Election Commission has completed preparations for conducting fresh delimitations for 15 local bodies in the Rawalpindi district.

Officials at the District Election Commission Office in Rawalpindi on Monday said that they may start the new delimitation process this week. They further said that the committees which will carry out the delimitation exercise have been formed.

They added that a final list for the delimitated local body seats will be released on October 13.

In this regard, they said that the Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner's Office has provided them with maps - including revenue circles, and other records of all local bodies of the district.

The local bodies in Punjab were dissolved two-and-a-half years ahead of their constitutional terms while district officials were handed the responsibility of administrators in the new system of neighbourhood and village councils.

Subsequently, the DC office had facilitated the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by providing them with a list of all the old union councils in the district and other details including demarcation of revenue circles and population statistics. The ECP will now start delimitation for the new system of the metropolitan corporation, seven tehsil councils, six municipal committees and a town committee.

The defunct Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation had 46 union councils. But now, 24 councils from the rural areas will be added in the new district council, increasing the number of seats to 70.

However, this means that Rawalpindi has become smaller while Gujjar Khan has become the largest tehsil council in the district.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2020.