Schedule for delimitation of ITC constituencies announced

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday took first step towards holding the maiden local bodies polls in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ITC), by announcing the schedule for delimitation of constituencies for the region.
A senior ECP official told The News that the electoral exercise would be held on July 25 this year while the schedule for the same could be issued during the first week of June. It is widely being speculated here that the launch of local bodies system is most likely to challenge the authority of the Capital Development Authority as both bodies will be having similar tasks to do.
The Election Commission released an order, envisaging the schedule for the delimitation of constituencies, according to which, relevant material—maps, population data and number of constituencies—would be collected on March 30.
The preparation of preliminary list of constituencies would be made by the delimitation officers from April 01 to April 30, followed by publication of preliminary lists of constituencies for inviting representations and objections and filing representations and objections before the delimitation authorities from May 01 to May 15.
As per the schedule, disposal of representations and objections by the delimitation authorities will be carried out from May 16 to May 22 while the last date for communication of decisions by the delimitation authorities will be May 25 and the final notification about the delimitation of constituencies will be issued by the delimitation officers on May 30.
The electoral body issued the schedule for delimitation in the light of the Supreme Court order issued on March 10 in the wake of a CMA. The Election Commission has also appointed a district election commissioner as delimitation officer and assistant commissioners rural and urban as assistant delimitation officers for the proposed exercise.
“An interesting preposition is to emerge in July after the local bodies polls in the federal capital and let us see, how will it go about with regards to CDA,” remarked a senior CDA official when asked about the proposed system for Islamabad.It is also speculated that apart from the related ordinance, the CDA may have to shed some of its powers in favour of the proposed local bodies in due course of time.