EDITORIAL: The preliminary list of constituency delimitations issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) based on parity between populations within a district contains vexing discrepancies, creating a considerable controversy.
The electoral body has justified its new scheme of constituency demarcations, saying the delimitation work was carried out keeping in view seats allocated to the provinces on the basis of their population and constituencies allotted to each district under rule 8 (2) of the (amended) Election Act. And that in addition to population, it has taken into account other principles mentioned in Section 20, such as administrative units and homogeneity.
Critics though point out that the Constitution talks about population of constituencies, not districts. Hence a simple law could not override a constitutional provision.
At issue are wide variations in populations of various constituencies. The preliminary delimitation proposals, for example, show that the largest National Assembly constituency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — NA 39 Bannu — comprises a population of 1,357,890, which is three times bigger than that of the smallest constituency in that province, NA-1 Chitral Upper-cum-Lower Chitral with a population of just 515,935.
This is not only unfair but also violates the Election Act, which says “as far as possible variation in the population of constituencies of an assembly or a local government shall not ordinarily exceed 10 percent.” Furthermore, it states that “if the limit of 10 percent is exceeded in an exceptional case, the Commission shall record the reasons thereof in the delimitation order.”
Yet as per the ECP’s own admission, the 10 percent limit has been exceeded not in a few ‘exceptional cases’ but in as many as 64 constituencies, a figure disputed by the Free and Fair Elections Network (Fafen).
Its analysis of the delimitation proposals reveals that some 180 constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies do not meet the legal allowance for 10 percent variations in population, which is more than one-fifth of the total constituencies demarcated.
Fafen has rightly described the variations as undermining of the principle of equal suffrage upheld by Parliament through the latest amendment to the Election Act, 2017.
It won’t take long for the real stakeholders to cry foul and reject the ECP’s move to redraw constituency boundaries — required following publication of the latest census result — by applying the parity principle to districts rather than populations.
The PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) has already indicated its intention to mount a legal challenge to the electoral body on the issue. And considering how conspiracy theories abound in this country, it would not be surprising if the new method of constituency demarcations is ascribed to political engineering aimed at keeping certain political players out of the assemblies.
It is imperative therefore that the electoral watchdog comes clean about its work and gives due consideration to objections being raised, making amends before it gets accused of having an ulterior motive.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023