PHC issues notice to ECP over change of constituency number

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday put on notice the Election Commission of Pakistan to submit a reply in a writ petition challenging the number of a constituency from NA-1, Peshawar, to NA-31.

A division bench comprising Justice Syed Muhammad Attique Shah and Justice Syed Arshad Ali issued a notice in the writ petition filed by the senior leader of Awami National Party Ghulam Ahmad Bilour. He has sought an order of the court to retain the old number of his constituency as NA-1.

The petition was filed through Sangeen Khan advocate. The court fixed June 12 as next date of hearing. During the hearing, the lawyer submitted that though the rule 10 of the elections rules, 2017, provides that the limitation of the constituencies shall start from the northern end of the district. But the ECP, he said, has ‘wrongly’ extended this principle to the numerical order of the constituencies, which is ‘unwarranted’ and beyond the scope of rules and thus ‘illegal’ and ‘unlawful.’

The ECP has started the numbering of constituencies from the northern part of the country and granted NA-1 to Chitral district while the former NA 1, (Peshawar-III), was renumbered as NA-31 (Peshawar-V).

Bilour in his petition said that Peshawar is a historical city and his family and the residents of the city have a historical affiliation with the constituency of NA-1. “They’ve been taking pride to have been the first constituency of the National Assembly of Pakistan,” he added.

He stated that the political and historical significance of the constituency evolved through decades of the electoral process and election in the country. Late Benazir Bhutto and other heads of the party and former chief ministers have contested election from the same NA-1. In all previous delimitations, the constituency was named as NA-1 in numerical order of the constituencies of the National Assembly.

“The unnecessary and unwarranted change of number will only erase electoral history associated with this constituency,” he added. The lawyer said the former numerical order was disbursed without any solid reason.

“The delimitation doesn’t necessitate the alteration of the number of a constituency. The change in the numerical order of the constituency is bereft of any rational jurisdiction,” he told the bench.

He added that it is settled law that every judicial and administrative authority is obliged to furnish proper reasons before making any such change, but alteration is devoid of any reasonable reason and justification.

Because the ECP has failed to cite any proper administration or technical justification in changing the numbers of the constituencies, the constituency number should be allocated back to NA-31 (Peshawar-V).