Mardan constituencies delimitation: Court seeks reply from ECP

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to submit a reply within three days in a writ petition seeking an order of the court to declare the delimitation of seven provincial assembly constituencies of the Mardan district as void and restore the old ones.

A division bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Nasir Mehfooz issued the notice to the ECP to submit a reply within three days.

The bench was hearing the writ petition filed by leaders of various political parties from the Mardan district. They included Umar Farooq, Haider Ali Khan, Ashfaq, Yasir and others through their lawyer Babar Khan Yousafzai.

During the hearing, the lawyer submitted that unnatural delimitation was carried out in some four to five provincial assembly constituencies in Mardan.

He said the petitioners had filed objections with the ECP, but these were not addressed.

Due to the unnatural delimitation, he said, both the voters and political parties were in trouble in all the constituencies.

He pointed out natural boundaries were not followed during the delimitation in the constituencies of PK-48, PK-49, PK-51 and PK-52, which was the key condition for the delimitation and the Election Act also giving importance to the natural boundaries in the delimitation.

The petitioners requested the court to order the ECP to restore the old position of all the seven constituencies in Mardan for the upcoming general election.