ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Law Ministry seeking early publication of the national census results so that the process of delimitation of c
onstituencies required under the Elections Act of 2017 may be carried out. The letter was written by ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad to the Federal Secretary for Law and Justice Karamat Hussain Niazi, pointing out that under Article 51(5) of the c
onstitution, seats were allocated to the provinces, the Federally Adm
inistered Tribal Areas and the Federal Capital in accordance with their population. The letter stated that the provisional resul
ts of the national census released last week showed tangible demographic changes. It said the reallocation of seats not only in the National Assembly but also in the prov
incial assemblies had become necessar
y. It said if seats were to be reallocated accordingly, the ECP would have to delimit c
onstituencies as per Chapter 3 of the Elections Act 2017. Under Chapter 3 of the act, the ECP is required delimit territorial c
onstituencies for elections to the National Assembly, each prov
incial assembly and to the local governments. The letter states that keeping in view the importance, magnitude of work and the time period required for completion of delimitation, the early publication of the official census results was essential, as a delay would not allow the process to be completed in time. It said the process was to be carried out after every census.
Published in Daily Times, August 30th 2017.