PTI moves SC against new delimitation schedule

Party says there is no need for ECP to carry out process till new census

ISLAMABAD:

The PTI on Tuesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the delimitation schedule issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the next general elections.

The petition was filed by PTI Secretary General and former planning minister Asad Umar through his fellow party member, former federal information minister Fawad Chaudhry.

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

In a statement, it had announced that no new administrative unit would be formed anywhere in the country.

It had earlier decided that to carry out delimitations based on the National Census 2017. It had ruled out the possibility of the digital census announced by the previous PTI government.

The ECP had directed the chief secretaries and provincial election commissioners to provide required maps and other documents for demarcation work from April 11 to April 26.

Similarly, training of delimitation committees would be conducted from April 20 to April 24 and the preliminary results would be published on May 28.

The PTI's petition prayed that the schedule issued by the ECP should be declared “unconstitutional” and “illegal” as there was no need for new delimitation till the new census.

The party further contended that it was the responsibility of the ECP to hold free and fair elections and constituencies could not be demarcated in violation of the Constitution and law.

It further prayed to the court to validate the delimitation of May 3, 2018.

"[The] election commission and the secretary election commission should be ordered to ensure the election process and prevent any delay in it," it read.

The petition named the federation, ECP, secretary election commission, statistics department, provincial chief secretaries and cabinet secretary as respondents.

On April 14, Fawad had tweeted 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 had added.

Earlier on April 8, it was reported that the population census had 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 planning and development ministry had told The Express Tribune.

However, 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, sources had added.