ECP's meeting on Election 2018 underway

The Election Commission of Pakistan commenced a meeting on Friday to discuss and decide the future course of action to be taken on delimitation bill and to discuss preparation work for Election 2018.

The emergency meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (retd) Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza is attended by chief secretaries, the provincial election commissioners, Chairman National Database and Registration Authority and Secretary Pakistan Board of Statistics.

According to a local media report, sources said that this meeting would mark commencement of the preparatory work for the elections. Instructions will be given regarding the preparation of Election 2018 which will likely take place in the last week of July or first week of August.

Passing delimitation bill removes speculation of delay in general election: Saad

On December 19, the Senate had approved of the amendment bill on the delimitation of constituencies on the basis of provisional results of the 2017 population census. The bill was passed with 84 votes with all majority parties in support while Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid (PML-Q) was the only party to vote against it.

Under the amendments, Punjab will lose out seats as the population has fallen to 52 percent in 2017 from 56 percent in 1998. Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will gain the seats lost by Punjab. Whereas, the number of National Assembly and Sindh’s seats will remain the same.