ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said on Monday it would take an 'appropriate decision as per constitution and law' in the backdrop of electoral body's ongoing dispute with Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and its Sindh government over the Commission's delimitation plan for Sindh in connection with holding the local government elections.

In this context, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) presided over a meeting between senior ECP officials, PPP leaders and Sindh government representatives in a bid to resolve the issue.

Apart from ECP's central management, PPP leaders including Nisar Khuhro, Taj Haider, Farhatullah Babar, Sindh Special Secretary Local Government Khalid Chachar and Research Officer Local Government Akhlaq Ahmad attended the meeting.

According to an ECP statement, the PPP leaders and Sindh government officials were of the view during the meeting that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) did not officially notify the results of population census carried out in 2017 and, therefore, keeping in view the relevant constitutional provisions, the ECP cannot hold LG elections in Sindh on unofficial census data.

ECP Director General (Law) Muhammad Arshad briefed the Commission that the tenure of local bodies in Sindh came to an end on Aug 30, and, as per the law, the ECP is required to ensure holding the LG polls in Sindh, the statement said.

"The ECP heard the stance of PPP leaders and Sindh government officials. The ECP would take a decision on PPP and Sindh government's stance as per constitution and law," the statement added.

On Sep 4, the ECP removed Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh Javed Khan Afridi from his position and directed to report to the ECP headquarters. He was replaced with Aijaz Anwer Chohan who was performing duties at the ECP headquarters as Additional Director General Local Government Elections - a development that indicates that Afridi's removal is linked to ECP's preparations for LG polls in Sindh.

Sindh Joint Provincial Election Commissioner Farid Afridi was also removed from his position and directed to report to the ECP headquarters.

On Aug 31, the Sindh government formally issued a notification announcing the dissolution of all the elected LG offices in the province on the completion of their four-year term a day earlier. Following this development, the ECP, on the same date, issued the schedule for the delimitation of constituencies ahead of LG elections in Sindh.

However, the PPP rejected the delimitation plan with party leaders including Nisar Khuhro and Taj Haider having written letters to the electoral body in which they have said that the ECP would commit an unconstitutional step if it goes ahead with its plan to do fresh delimitation and conduct new LG elections in Sindh on the basis of the provisional results of 2017 census, saying that the population of Sindh had been counted less than the actual count in the last population census drive in the country in 2017 and the province did have objections in this regard.

On Thursday (Sep 3), the ECP summoned the PPP leaders and Sindh government officials in a bid to resolve the delimitation row.

Constitutionally, the ECP is bound to hold delimitation of constituencies on the basis of population as per official results of last population census. Article 51 (5) reads, "The seats in the National Assembly shall be allocated to each province and the Federal Capital on the basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census officially published: Provided that for purposes of the next general elections to be held in 2018 and bye-elections related thereto, the allocation shall be made on the basis of provisional results of the 2017 census which shall be published by the Federal Government."

According to ECP's delimitation schedule for Sindh, the publication of the preliminary list of constituencies for inviting representations and objections would be on Sep 23; whereas, the filing of representations and objections before the delimitation authorities by the voters concerned would take place between September 23 and Oct 7.

The disposal of representations and objections by the delimitation authorities would happen in the next 15 days until Oct 22.

The last date for the communication of decisions of the delimitation authorities to the delimitation committees would be Oct 29, while the final publication of the list of constituencies by the delimitation committees would take place on Oct 30.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020