he Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz seems to be struggling to mobilise its workers to accord a rousing welcome to its supreme leader, Nawaz Sharif, on October 21.

The party is planning to hold an unprecedented rally to welcome Sharif when he lands in Lahore. Party sources say there are plans for him to be taken to Minar-i-Pakistan where he is to address a public rally and share an outline of his strategy to rescue the country from the dire straits it is in currently. The next day, he is to appear before a court to seek protective bail.

Earlier, Sharif had demanded accountability for those he said had conspired to oust him from power. Later, some party leaders, especially Shahbaz Sharif and Ishaq Dar, claimed that the party was not seeking revenge. “Nawaz Sharif’s imminent return is not intended to seek revenge. Rather, he will focus on healing the nation’s wounds. He has left the matter [of wrongs done to him] to Allah,” said Shahbaz Sharif while addressing a gathering in Lahore on October 4.

The PML-N and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, allies in the former Pakistan Democratic Front’s government, appear to be unhappy with the prospect of elections in January 2024.

Maryam Nawaz, the PML-N chief organiser, who had earlier called for first, accountability; then elections, has now come up with: first economic recovery, then elections. For his part, Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman too has rejected the idea of general elections in January 2024. “Pakistan will see harsh weather in January. Many constituencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will be covered with snow. Elections cannot be held in such conditions,” he has said.

On the other hand, the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Awami National Party and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf have been demanding elections as soon as the delimitation process is completed.

The Election Commission of Pakistan issued its report on the delimitation of the constituencies on September 27. Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), a group that has been monitoring elections for transparency, has expressed dissatisfaction with the delimitation process. In a press release it pointed out that as many as 180 constituencies of the National and Provincial Assemblies did not meet the no-more-than10 percent-variation-in-the-population bench mark, “thus undermining the principle of equal suffrage.”

“According to the amendments enacted on August 4, 2023, after parliamentary approval, the ECP was expected to disregard district boundaries to ensure that the variation among the population of an assembly’s constituencies does not ordinarily exceed 10 percent.”

The PML-N and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, allies in the former Pakistan Democratic Front government, appear to be unhappy with the idea of elections in January 2024.

The monitoring group said that the average National Assembly constituency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is to have 907,913 people, the Islamabad Capital Territory 787,954 people, the Punjab 905,595 people, Sindh 913,052 people and Balochistan 930,900.

The provincial assembly constituencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are to have an average of 355,270 people, for the Punjab 429,929 people, for Sindh 428,432 and for Balochistan 292,047 people.

“An analysis of the preliminary report of 2023 delimitation and draft lists of constituencies reflects that the parliamentary emphasis on minimising the population variation was not used extensively to ensure the [near] equality of votes in constituencies of an assembly,” the press release reads.

It said that the Election Act amendment was only used in delimiting 11 NA constituencies — six in the KP, three in the Punjab and two in Sindh — and one Punjab Assembly constituency.

“As a result, the number of constituencies with more than 10pc variation in population went up from 170 — 82 NA and 88 PAs — in 2022 delimitation to 180 — 83 NA and 97 PAs — in the 2023 draft lists of constituencies.”

“This means that more than a fifth of the constituencies do not comply with Section 20(3) of the Elections Act, 2017. The proposed NA constituencies with more than 10 percent population variation include 35 constituencies in the Punjab, 22 in Sindh, 21 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and five in Balochistan.”

“The PA constituencies with larger variation include 30 places in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 26 in the Punjab, 25 in Balochistan and 16 in Sindh,” the FAFEN said.

The ECP has rejected the criticism. In a press release, it said it had allocated 266 National Assembly seats to provinces based on population. It said the FAFEN was apparently treating provinces, not districts, as the unit for allocation of legislative seats. Section 20 of the Elections Act, 2017 covers the relevant rules. The rationale for constituency changes was explained in the initial constituency report.”

The ECP said the revised law did not require the ECP to “strictly adhere” to current district boundaries where such adherence would result in a population variation exceeding 10 percent.

The reservations might lead to another legal battle over the interpretation of the law.

Most PTI leaders have rejected reports about on-going talks between the establishment and their party chief Imran Khan, who has seemed more than willing to talk to the establishment. To date, no breakthrough in the negotiations has been reported.

The writer is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and analyst. He tweets at @BukhariMubasher