Court asks ECP to reconsider representations against delimitation

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to reconsider the representations filed against delimitation of two National Assembly constituencies NA-2 and NA-4 and four Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly constituencies in Swat district for decision in accordance with the provisions of Election Act and Rules 2017.

A division bench comprising Justice Qalandar Ali Khan and Justice Muhammad Ghazanfar Khan disposed of the writ petitions filed against the delimitation of National Assembly constituencies and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly constituencies.

It was claimed that the delimitation was not only against the Election Act and Rules 2017 but also would put the voters in great trouble due to over 30 kilometres distance for casting votes.

Authored by Justice Qalandar Ali Khan, the high court in the judgment directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to consider the objections over delimitation at NA-2, NA-4, PK-3, PK-4, PK-5 and PK-6 of Swat district before the general election 2018 and decide it as per the Election Act and Rules 2017.

However, the court dismissed the writ petition filed against delimitation of PK-20 and PK-21 Buner, with the observation that the petitioners failed to prove the case with solid proofs and evidence.

Muhammad Saleem Khan and others had filed a writ petition against the ECP notification issued on April 4, about delimitation of NA-2 Swat-1 and NA-4 Swat-III claiming that the notification was against law and rules framed under the Election Act 2017.

The petitioners claimed that the constituencies had been drawn/finalized without adhering to the principles of delimitation as enunciated in section 20 of the Election Act, 2017 read with section 10 of the Election Rules that had broken the administrative unit of Tehsil Matta in multiple ways thereby negatively affecting the electoral process and interests of public at large as the Matta tehsil has been divided in to two National Assembly constituencies causing concerns to the petitioners, residents and voters of the Matta tehsil.

Counsel for the petitioners argued that the respondents had violated principles of homogeneity and public convenience due to the compactness of the areas and that the geographic spirit of the territory had not been taken into consideration in the delimitation process.

Furthermore, he submitted that the ECP even did not discuss a single point about delimitation and rejected the representations.

Similarly, political parties leaders from Swat and residents including Haider Ali and others filed writ petitions in the high court against delimitation at PK-3, PK-4, PK-5 and PK-6 of Swat district.

As per the judgment, the petitioners objected to the delimitation of the provincial assembly constituencies in the Swat district in their representations to the ECP on the grounds that the delimitation was in total deviation from the provisions of section 20 of the Election Act, 2017 and rule 10 of the Election Rules 2017.

Pointing out specific instances of disturbance of population in geographically compact areas, ignoring physical features, overlooked existing boundaries of administrative units, rather disturbing the administrative units and without taking into consideration of important features of facilities of communication and public convenience and other cognate features to ensure homogeneity in the creation of constituencies in accordance with the letter and spirit of section 20 of the Election Act 2017.

The bench declared that in view of the arguments and available record regarding delimitation, the writ petition related to PK-20 and PK-21 of Buner district is dismissed being void of substance, while writ petitions related to NA-2 and NA-4 Swat and PK-3, PK-4, PK-5 and PK-6 are allowed in the terms

that representation of all the petitioners in the same writ petitions are deemed to be pending before ECP for reconsideration and decision in accordance with the provisions of the Election Act and Rules 2017.