ISLAMABAD: It is for the federal government to decide when to hold general elections and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is ready to hold the polls whenever so asked, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja has said—in what appears to be a clear deviation from the ECP’s previous stance suggesting that the general elections were not possible before October this year.
“It is the responsibility of the ECP to ensure free and fair polls—the ECP takes decisions without accepting any fear or pressure—if someone gets happy or annoyed over these decisions—it’s their problem,” he told journalists after administering oath to two new ECP members—Babar Hassan Bharwana from Punjab and Ikramullah Khan from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday.
He said the ECP has expedited progress on the ongoing delimitation of constituencies for general elections.
The results of the population census 2017 were notified by the federal government in May last year, the CEC said. Thereafter, he said, the electoral body started work on the constituencies’ delimitation.
The ECP’s stance, he said, was clear, delimitation was not possible unless the results of the population census were notified. A special constitutional amendment was brought in the Parliament for delimitation ahead of the 2018 general polls, he said.
Raja said the federal government wants to hold a digital population census. If the results of this census are notified and shared with the ECP by September this year, then delimitation for general polls can be done on the basis of the digital census. Otherwise, he said, the results of the population census 2017 would be relied upon.
To a query, he said, former deputy speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri did not send the resignations of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PT) members National Assembly (MNAs) to the ECP.
On Foreign Funding Case, the CEC said, “The case is underway. Those that are parties to the case should be given a complete opportunity to be heard. What unfolds in these proceedings is for you to judge—journalists are best judges.”
In April, President Arif Alvi, through a letter, sought the date from the electoral body for holding general elections, within 90 days of the dissolution of the NA, under Article 48(5)(A) and Article 224(2) of the Constitution.
In response, the commission responded that the general elections were not possible before October this year and that it needed four months to complete the delimitation drive in order to hold the general polls within 90 days. Later, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the dissolution of the NA and restored the lower house of the Parliament.
According to the ECP, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)’s merger with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa resulted in the reduction of related NA seats from 12 to six, reducing the general NA seats from 272 to 266, which necessitated the need to launch afresh the exercise to delimit constituencies of the NA.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
Comments
Comments are closed.