‘Dangerous for federation’: Senators demand timely elections

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) senators have termed the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) move to carry out new delimitations “unconstitutional”, reminding the electoral body that it is bound to hold elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly.

A day earlier, the poll organising authority announced the schedule of new delimitations to be carried out as per the new census approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) earlier this month.

The ECP schedule showed that fresh delimitation will take nearly four months, meaning the general elections in the country cannot be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the provincial and national assemblies.

PPP Senator Raza Rabbani, in an official statement, said that the ECP's publication of the final list of constituencies violates Article 224 of the Constitution as it directs to hold elections "within" 90 days after the assembly is dissolved.

"The delimitation of constituencies flows from the Election Act, 2017, particularly when the provincial number of seats is not being affected. In order to meet a constitutional requirement the time provisions in the schedule should have been squeezed," said the statement.

He added that the ECP could have asked the federal and provincial government for additional staff to complete the task to ensure elections within 90 days.

"Previously there was an attempt to provide a fig leaf for a constitutional violation but in the past four years the Constitution has been violated at will and convenience," said Rabbani, adding that it is "very dangerous" for the federation.

Meanwhile, JI's Mushtaq Ahmed Khan said that the electoral body's decision to postpone elections under the guise of fresh delimitations was "unconstitutional".

He said the decision violates Article 224 of the Constitution, adding that the CCI had no authority to give approval to the census.

Senator Mushtaq also said that the previous government facilitated the ECP in this "unconstitutional process".