Twin cities may get one more NA seat each
The ECP had another huddle on Friday on issue of fresh delimitation as per this year’s population headcount PHOTO: FILE
In the new digital delimitation for the constituencies of national and provincial assemblies, there is a possibility of an increase of one National Assembly seat each from the districts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi while one provincial assembly seat may also be added from the Rawalpindi district.
With this expected increase, the National Assembly seats from the Islamabad and Rawalpindi districts will increase from seven to eight and three to four respectively while the provincial assembly seats from Rawalpindi district will become 16 from 15.
During the last five years in the Rawalpindi district, the number of votes has increased by 327,802 while the number of votes in Islamabad has increased by a record 216,542 votes and there is a possibility of another increase of 10,000 to 20,000 votes by December 31.
Similarly, the total number of votes in the 2018 elections in the Rawalpindi district was 3,121,419, including 1,644,498 male and 1,476,918 female votes. At that time, the number of National Assembly seats in the Rawalpindi district was seven and the provincial assembly was 15. With the increase of 300,000 votes, there is a clear possibility of increasing one seat each of the National Assembly and the provincial assembly in the district.
At present, the total number of votes in Rawalpindi district has increased to 3,449,221 of which 1,789,409 are male votes and 1,662,812 are female votes. These also include 3,350 votes of people belonging to the Ahmadi community and 1,201 trans-persons.
In district Islamabad, the total votes in 2018 were 767,935 of which 406,271 were male and 356,664 were female votes and accordingly there were three NA seats. Now these votes have increased to 984,477, including 518,193 male and 466,284 female votes.
With the increase of 216,542 votes, Islamabad is also likely to see an increase of one seat, which will raise the number of NA seats from three to four in the district.
Meanwhile, the total number of votes for two National Assembly seats in the Attock district has increased to 1,298,866, including 675,066 male and 623,800 female votes.
With the increase in the number of voters in these three districts of the Rawalpindi division, there is a possibility of an increase in the number of provincial assembly seats.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2023.