New criterion: ECP notices to 317 parties

Islamabad : The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday issued show cause notices to 317 political parties for not sharing a ‘certified’ list of 2,000 workers each and submitting Rs200, 000 as registration fee under the new criterion.

The notices have been served on the JUI-Fazl, JUI-Sami, Jamhoori Watan Party, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, I am Pakistan party, Balochistan National Movement and Balochistan National Party.

These parties have been asked to respond to the notices within 15 days or else their names would be delisted.

The cases of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamaat-e-Islami, Pak Sarzameen Party, Awami National Party and MQM are under process, as they had submitted documents before the deadline.

For over a couple of months, the commission has been sending reminders to the parties to the needful before December 4.

Under the Elections Act 2017, the parties are required to follow a certain procedure to remain on its list of registered parties.

Earlier, the procedure was very simple that took the political parties’ number to 350. However, the new criterion will help reverse the number. Normally, hardly 12 to 15 parties make it to the legislatures after elections.

Needless to say, the issuance of notices is prelude to a drastic decrease in the number of political parties. It is speculated that the number may be brought down to well below 100 within next few weeks.

The commission has also issued a list of 27 political parties, which had fulfilled the criterion.

These include Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians, Pakistan Muslim League-Shujaat, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Balochistan National Party-Awami, Pakistan Awami Tehreek, Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, All Pakistan Muslim League and Qaumi Watan Party.

The delisting of a large number of parties, according to an ECP official, makes things easy for the commission with particular reference to the general election next year.

Meanwhile, the process for initiation of exercise for delimitation of constituencies under the provisional census data has begun, as the Election Commission has formally summoned relevant data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and provincial governments.

The authorities concerned have been to submit maps of districts and tehsils, and notifications of circles and blocks in softcopies.

Furthermore, census charges of metropolitan corporations, town and municipal committees have also been summoned.

The commission has given deadline of January 5 for submission of data on changes in census blocks, and documents pertaining to delimitation of constituencies will be compiled by January 10.

The draft proposals of delimitation will be forwarded to the ECP from January 15 to February 28. Objections to proposals will be received from March 5 to April 3, and will be resolved from April 4 to May 3.