PTI to challenge ECP's delimitation order, says Fawad

Former information minister claims the commission 'on a mission to make the election process controversial'

Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry announced on Thursday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to challenge the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) delimitation order.

Fawad took to his official Twitter account to state that “delimitations are possible only if a new census is conducted.”

تحریک انصاف نےالیکشن کمیشن کے ملک بھر میں دوبارہ حلقہ بندیوں کے اقدام کو چیلنج کرنےکا فیصلہ کیا ہے،نئ حلقہ بندیاں صرف اس صورت میں ممکن ہوتی ہیں جب نئ مردم شماری ہو،مردم شماری کے بغیر حلقہ بندیاں آئین کی سنگین خلاف ورزی ہو گی۔ الیکشن کمیشن انتخابی عمل کو متنازعہ بنانے کے مشن پر ہے

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 14, 2022

He furthered that creating new constituencies without a census would be a serious violation of the Constitution. “The Election Commission is on a mission to make the election process controversial,” he added.

On April 11, the ECP announced the delimitation schedule for the national and provincial assemblies for the next general elections.

In a statement, they announced that no new administrative unit will be formed anywhere in the country.

The chief secretaries and provincial election commissioners are directed to provide required maps and other documents for demarcation work. Documents will be provided from April 11 to April 26. Training of delimitation committees will be conducted from April 20 to April 24. Preliminary delimitations will be published on May 28.

Read ECP seeks election plan from secretaries

The commission had decided to immediately start the delimitation exercise on the basis of the 2017 census and population statistics.

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

Earlier on April 8, it was reported that the population census hit a snag after a government-run company expressed its inability to timely provide equipment for conducting door-to-door headcount digitally, serving the first blow to the official plans of making the seventh census politically acceptable to all.

The last government had approved a roadmap to begin the pilot census from May 15 and the door-to-door census from August this year but the deadlines can no more be met, sources in the Ministry of Planning and Development told The Express Tribune.

But the plan suffered a major setback when the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) – a government-run organisation that manufactures telecommunication equipment and electronic systems – showed its inability to provide the equipment required for carrying out the census, the sources added.