NA strength reduced to 336 in new delimitation

The strength of the National Assembly has decreased by six seats to 336 as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) reduced the representation of newly-merged districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) from 12 to six in the fresh delimitation under the 2023 census.

The ECP released the list of new constituencies on Wednesday, detailing the changes in the areas of each constituency of the national and provincial assembly. There would be 266 general seats in the lower house of parliament, as the K-P’s strength comes down to 45 from 51 in 2018.

In 2018, the former Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) was merged with K-P under the 25th Constitutional Amendment and initially 12 National Assembly seats were allocated to the newly merged districts, which had now reduced to six.

The ECP preliminary report said that the seat allocation to the other provinces would remain intact. Accordingly, Punjab will have 141 National Assembly seats; Sindh 51, Balochistan 16 and Islamabad three.

Similarly, the ECP also released the details of provincial assembly constituencies, according to which, the total number of seats in the Punjab Assembly was 297; Sindh Assembly 130; K-P Assembly 115, and Balochistan Assembly 51.

On average, the ECP said, each National Assembly constituency in K-P would consist of a population of 907,000; federal capital 787,000; Punjab 905,595; Sindh 913,000 and Balochistan 930,000. Each provincial assembly constituency of K-P would consist of a population of 355,000; Punjab 429,000 and Sindh 428,000.

The ECP said that 10 districts of K-P could not get the required population strength to get one National Assembly seat. Similarly, population was taken from Rawalpindi for a National Assembly seat for Murree.

Punjab

According to the report, Gujranwala and Hafizabad districts together have six seats. Two National Assembly seats in Jhelum, 10 in Faisalabad, 14 in Lahore and six each in Multan and Rahimyar Khan district remain unchanged.

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The Rawalpindi district and Murree together have 7 seats. Two seats have been retained by combining Chakwal and Talagang, while four seats of Muzaffargarh, five seats of Bahawalpur and two seats of Lodhran are retained.

K-P

A National Assembly constituency has been created by combining Chitral Upper and Chitral Lower. Kohistan Upper, Lower and Kolai Palash are combined for one seat; Mansehra and Targhar have been merged into one seat.

Similarly, Hangu and Orakzai are combined into one constituency; Tank and Dera Ismail Khan combined have three seats; while South Waziristan and North Waziristan have been merged into one seat.

Sindh

In the new delimitation, there is a change in the National Assembly constituencies from Sindh. Accordingly, Jacobabad, Kashmore and Shikarpur districts have been divided into four National Assembly seats.

Sanghar lost one National Assembly seat, reducing the number of seats from the district to two. The seat had been allocated to Karachi South district, whose strength has increased from two to three. Also, Karachi’s seats increase to 22 from previous 21.

In the new delimitation, there has been a change in the provincial assembly constituencies also. One seat each of Khairpur, Sanghar and Thatta districts has been decreased. As a result, Khairpur’s provincial assembly seats are reduced from seven to six; Sanghar from six to five and Thatta from three to two.

On the other hand, one seat each has been increased in Malir, East and Central districts of Karachi. Malir’s seats rise from five to six; Karachi East from eight to nine and Karachi Central from eight to nine.

Objections invited

The preliminary report of the constituencies was released on the ECP website. The report contains data as well as maps of each constituency. Objections to preliminary report can be raised by the voter of the constituency concerned until October 26. The ECP would decide on the objections from October 28 to November 26.

The ECP spokesperson maintained that the objections sent through courier, fax and post will not be accepted. They should be submitted to the ECP secretary in the form of a memorandum.

The voter in question will personally sign the memorandum and deliver it to the ECP Secretariat, either on their own or through a designated representative.

To file objections, it is essential to provide eight copies of the maps to the ECP.

The final lists are slated for release on November 30. The ECP has already confirmed that polls will take place in the last week of January 2024.

Meanwhile, the district maps can be obtained from the ECP after paying a “nominal fee”.