The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday released its provisional report on fresh delimitation of constituencies based on the recently concluded census, adding the publication was aimed at inviting representations and suggestions from both the general public and political parties.
In a statement, the electoral watchdog said any voters of a particular consistency could approach the ECP with objections until Oct. 26, adding objections submitted through courier, post or fax would not be accepted. It said the ECP would decide on the objections from Oct. 28-Nov. 26 before issuing a final list of the fresh delimitations.
The 39-page report said the delimitation exercise had strived to, as far as practicable, consider the distribution of population in geographically compact areas, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and public convenience and other cognate factors to ensure homogeneity in the creation of constituencies. It said the delimitation exercise had been conducted by dividing the population of the province/area by the total number of general seats to obtain the average population or quota per National Assembly seat. Similarly, it said, the population of a province was divided by the total number of general seats allocated to the provincial assembly to obtain a quota per seat. “In calculating a total number of seats, a fraction of 0.5 and above was generally taken as one seat and a fraction below 0.5 was ignored,” it added.
According to the report, the National Assembly consists of 266 general seats and 60 seats reserved for women, according to the following breakup: Punjab (141 general seats, 32 women’s seats); Sindh (61 general, 14 women); Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (45 general, 10 women); Balochistan (16 general, 4 women); and Islamabad (3 general). Additionally, 10 seats have been reserved for non-Muslims, it added. It said quota per seats in the National Assembly had been set at 907,913 for KP; 787,954 for Islamabad; 905,595 for Punjab; 913,052 for Sindh; and 930,900 for Balochistan.
For the provincial assemblies, the ECP has said Punjab has 297 general seats, 66 women’s seats, and 8 seats for non-Muslims; Sindh has 130 general, 29 women’s and 9 non-Muslims; Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has 115 general, 26 women’s and 4 non-Muslims; and Balochistan has 51 general, 11 women’s and 3 non-Muslim seats. It said the quota per seats had been set at 355,270 in KP; 429,929 in Punjab; 428,432 in Sindh; and 292,047 in Balochistan.
According to the report, of 36 districts in KP, 10 “could not attain population threshold/quota for an exclusive” NA seat. “Districts with insufficient population for an independent seat were merged into inter-district constituencies based on the laid down principles of delimitation, keeping in view the historical affiliation, socio-economic interdependence, homogeneity and public convenience,” it said. On Balochistan, it said Killa Saifullah, Zhob and Sherani had been clubbed into one NA seat; Musakhail, Barkhan, Loralai and Duki in one; Harnai, Sibi, Kohlu and Dera Bugtihave also had one; Nasirabad, Jhalmagsi, Kachhi, Jaffarabad, Usta Muhammad and Sohbatpur were clubbed with two NA seats; Quetta has three NA seats; Ziarat and Pishin have one; Killa Abdullah and Chaman have one; Nushki, Chagai, Washuk and Kharan have one; Mastung, Kalat and Surab have one; Lasbella, Hub and Awaran have one; and Panjgur, Kech and Gawadar also have one.
The ECP’s delimitation exercise is set to conclude on Nov. 30 with the publication of the final list of constituencies. Last week, the electoral body announced that it would conduct general elections in the last week of January 2024, but it did not provide any specific date.