ECP seeks election plan from secretaries

Poll supervisor tells bureaucrats to bring action plan on April 13; decides to expedite delimitation

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday decided to immediately start the delimitation exercise of all National Assembly and provincial assembly constituencies on the basis of the 2017 census and population statistics.

Keeping in view the current scenario of the country, the ECP has decided not to wait for the digital census which is yet to be decided and proceed with the delimitation exercise.

The delimitation process for the National Assembly and provincial assemblies will be completed in four months on a war footing basis.

The decision comes after a landmark unanimous ruling from the Supreme Court, which set aside National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling to dismiss the no-trust resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan and the subsequent dissolution of the lower house of parliament by President Arif Alvi on the premier’s advice.

The 5-0 ruling ordered parliament to reconvene on Saturday (tomorrow), no later than 10:30 am, saying that the session could not be prorogued without the conclusion of the no-trust motion against PM Imran

The decision was made in an important meeting of the ECP which was held under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and was attended by the members of the Commission and senior officials.

The meeting decided that the ECP would write to provincial governments to provide maps and relevant data immediately so the delimitation process is completed timely.

The commission ordered the secretary and special secretary to present a complete action plan for general elections before the commission on April 13, 2022.

The meeting was informed that the ECP is fully committed to fulfilling its constitutional duty for continuity of democratic processes, fair play, and rule of law. The commission was apprised of the non-release of funds by Finance Division as the ECP had written to the government and Finance Division regarding essential funds to conduct local government elections in Punjab.

The meeting observed that the local government elections were already delayed and a further delay would be a clear violation of law and the Constitution. Upon the advice of the Finance Division, the ECP had sent a summary of the supplementary grant for approval of ECC while the ECC forwarded it to the cabinet after its approval.

After the approvals from the cabinet, the finance division communicated its approval to ECP through official correspondence to ensure that Finance Division provide funds to ECP according to their needs. When Finance Division was contacted recently by ECP to release these funds, it was told that it cannot release the funds to conduct LG polls in Punjab as it requires a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Punjab government.

ECP took serious notice of the issue and said that it is an independent body financially and administratively under the Constitution.

The meeting considered that the government and all provincial governments are bound to provide administrative and financial support. However, for a variety of reasons, ECP is being hampered in the process of fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities.

In order to ensure timely conduct of Punjab's local government elections, the ECP has asked the federal secretary of finance and chief secretary of Punjab for having a meeting with the ECP. The commission will issue the orders after hearing both officials.

It was decided to reschedule the by-elections of NA-133 Hanga for April 17, 2022.

Earlier, elections were to be held on April 10, 2022, which were postponed in Hanga due to the dissolution of the National Assembly and the matter was sub judice due to its proceedings in the Supreme Court.

The commission ordered to speed up the process of updating and reviewing voter lists.