The process of delimitating constituencies for the upcoming general elections was always going to be controversial. How the boundaries are drawn for elections to the National Assembly and provincial assemblies can have a major impact on the identity of the winner. When the Election Commission of Pakistan released its delimitation of constituencies in March, various political parties immediately went to the courts to challenge the validity of over a hundred constituencies. In disposing of the various petitions filed by the political parties, the Islamabad High Court has now voided the delimitation of 10 constituencies. That number is likely to rise in the coming weeks as more petitions are adjudicated. The process this time around has been even more fraught than usual because this is the first time that electoral boundaries are being drawn up on the basis of the 2017 census. The IHC ruled that in the 10 constituencies, the ECP had not given due weight to the population proportions in the area. The law says that there must not be a variation of more than 10 percentage points in the populations of National Assembly seats – although exceptions are allowed to guarantee equal representation for areas that are sparsely populated.
One reason there has been even more agitation over delimitation than usual is that parliament tried to involve itself the process. A parliamentary committee was formed to discuss delimitation, even though the law clearly states that the matter is within the sole purview of the ECP. There is absolutely no role for parliament to play and any objections individual members have should only be raised through appeals to the court. The likely spur for parliamentary interference was the fact that the results of the census have led to changes in many constituencies, some of which may jeopardise the re-election chances of sitting parliamentarians. In recent days, for example, both the Bahadurabad and PIB factions of the MQM-Pakistan have called for delays in both the delimitation process and the election process until the full results of the census – including any appeals and recounts – are finalised. Now that the National Assembly’s tenure has ended and a caretaker government is in place, it is the responsibility of the caretaker setup to ensure that the process is kept apolitical. It must let the ECP get on with its job and allow any changes to be made by the ECP itself on the direction of the courts. The last thing we want is for the fairness of the elections to be called into question because constituencies were gerrymandered due to political pressure.