The delimitation process of constituencies for next general elections formally began on Tuesday as Election Commission of Pakistan has asked Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and provincial governments for provision of relevant data. According to details, the Commission has directed authorities to submit maps of districts and tehsils, and notifications of circles and blocks in soft copies.
Furthermore, census charges of metropolitan corporations as well as town and municipal committees have also been summoned. The Commission has given deadline of January 5 to the Bureau of Statistics and provincial governments for the submission of required data regarding changes in census blocks, and documents pertaining to delimitation of constituencies.
Draft proposals of delimitations will be forwarded to the ECP from January 15 to February 28. Objections on proposals will be received from March 5 to April 3, and will be resolved from April 4 to May 3. The Commission has already announced to complete the process of delimitation of constituencies by May 3 next year; so that next general elections could be held on time.
The last hurdle in way of the delimitation of the constituencies on basis of provisional results of the census was cleared on December 19 after the Senate approved the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 pertaining to delimitation of the constituencies. The bill was passed with 84 votes in favor of the motion while one vote was cast against it.
The Senate remained unable to vote on the bill for three times in November owing to lack of quorum until the PML-N-led government had to hold talks with opposition parties to pass the constitution amendment bill. Under the terms of the amendment, the total number of National Assembly seats will remain unchanged with adjustments in seats allocation for the provinces in accordance with the census 2017 results.
Punjab will lose out on seats as its population has fallen to 52 percent in 2017 from 56 percent in 1998. On the other hand, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will gain the seats lost by Punjab, while Sindh's share will remain the same.