In spite of its firm commitment to holding elections, Pakistan’s Election Commission (ECP) has said that it would take at least another four months to finish the process of delimitation.
In a letter, the ECP told President Dr. Arif Alvi that the elections might be held in October 2022, as required by Article 18(3) of the constitution.
In the Constitution, Article 218(3) says that the Commission is an “independent constitutional authority.” Its job is to make sure that the election is done legally and that there are no corrupt activities.
According to the report, one of the first stages preceding the election was the delimitation of seats. Constitutional law says Article 51(5) and Section 17 of the Elections Act, 2017 say that based on population, constituencies should be drawn. This was determined by the most recent official census, which was done last year.
In accordance with a one-time dispensation granted by the amendment made under Article 51(5) of the Constitution for the General Elections 2018 for the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies, the results of the 6th National Census 2017 were published on January 3, 2018. The Commission then used these results to delimit national and provincial assemblies.
The ECP said the final publication of official findings of the Census was necessary for the delimitation of seats in the National and Provincial Assemblies for the upcoming general elections.
That’s why the Commission worked hard to publish the official census findings as soon as possible. Separate letters were sent to the Ministries of Law and Justice, Parliamentary Affairs, Bureau of Statistics, and the Secretaries of Congress and National Assembly.
According to the statement, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution combined the former FATA region with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It cut the number of National Assembly seats from 276 to 266 when the FATA was abolished and six seats were given to the KP based on population. This is how it worked:
The new delimitation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had to be done, but the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) didn’t want to publish official census results, so it couldn’t do so.
CCI reported results from the 6th National Census, following which the Commission commenced the delimitation process and authorised dates for delimitation of constituencies for National and Provincial Assemblies. Finally, CCI.
In the meantime, the government has chosen to conduct a new digital census of its citizens and citizens around the world. Finally, since the Commission had already agreed on the timeline, it was forced to stop the process of delimitation.
So that the delimitation process could start and finish on time, letters were sent to Parliamentary Affairs at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. The digital census was supposed to be done in March 2023.
That ministry didn’t respond to the Election Commission, which caused the process of delimitation to be pushed back by a few weeks.
Under the law, both the federal and provincial governments are supposed to give the Election Commission information about how elections should be run. The Election Commission isn’t the only one who can make these decisions.
The Commission cannot be held responsible for any delays in the delimitation process if any government fails to fulfil its responsibilities and assist the Commission.
