ECP to seek ministries’ help for new constituencies

Summons interior secretary, chief commissioner on August 5

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday decided to seek the assistance of the law and parliamentary affairs ministries and the attorney general for Pakistan for fresh delimitation of constituencies based on the publication of the final census data.

It has also summoned the interior secretary and the chief commissioner on August 5 on the issue of the delimitation of local bodies in Islamabad.

A meeting of the ECP was held, presided over by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja. New constituencies were considered in light of the final census data.

The commission has taken notice of the withdrawal of the letter from the interior ministry on the issue of new delimitation for local government elections in Islamabad.

The ministry had written a letter to the ECP to form 50 union councils in Islamabad.

After receiving the letter, the commission had started working on the constituencies. However, a few days ago the letter was withdrawn unilaterally.

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The interior secretary and Islamabad chief commissioner have been summoned on August 5 for a briefing on the matter.

In addition, the commission has also convened a meeting on August 10 on the local government elections in Sindh and Balochistan.

The chief secretaries and the local government secretaries have been called to give a briefing on the preparations for the local government elections.

On Sunday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had said that local government’ elections in the province would be held on a party basis and before the general elections.

Talking to the media in Sehwan, Murad emphasised that these elections would be held in a way that raised no objections.