NA committee working group rejects delimitation of new constituencies by ECP

ISLAMABAD: The working group of a special committee of National Assembly on Saturday rejected delimitation of new constituencies by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and recommended holding the elections on the basis of previous delimitation.

The nine-member working group held its meeting in Islamabad on Saturday, which was attended only by Danial Aziz and Mehmood Khan Achakzai.

MNA Iftikharuddin attended the meeting on a special invitation.

On the occasion, Danial Aziz said that since it was a working group and not a committee, so the quorum rule does not apply to it.

The working group includes Danial Aziz, Arif Alvi, Naveed Qamar, S Iqbal Qadri, Naeema Kishwer, Tariqullah, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Ghous Bakhsh Mehr and Shahji Gul Afridi.

Rabbani slams ECP over refusal to provide names of those involved in delimitation

It is unacceptable and against the rules that ECP is not providing names of those involved in delimitation, said the former Senate chairman

The meeting recommended constituting a federal inquiry commission, through a presidential ordinance, to probe as to who made delimitation of new constituencies.

On March 5, the ECP issued initial delimitation of national and provincial assemblies on the basis of the population census carried out late last year.

The initial delimitation issued by ECP has maintained 272 general seats in the national assembly, with Sindh's general seats remaining unchanged at 61 and FATA's at 12.

However, the ECP reduced the number of general seats in Punjab by seven to 141 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's by four. Balochistan's general seats were also reduced by two while Islamabad saw an increase of a seat.

Punjab would now have 141 general seats, Sindh 61, KP will have 39, Balochistan 16, FATA 12 and Islamabad will have 3.

The election commission had said that any reservations could be brought to the commission until April 3, 2018.