EXPRESS TRIBUNE

10^th November 2017

ISLAMABAD: Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on Thursday observed that it was parliament that had to resolve the issue of delimitation of constituencies.

“It is parliament that has to resolve the delimitation issue. We do not want any institution [the ECP] approaching another institution [the SC] to resolve it” he observed during the Senate session when apprised by the law minister that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had hinted at moving the Supreme Court if parliament failed to take a decision on the issue.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid said: “The ECP believes since a new population census has been held, delimitations should be conducted before the next general elections,” adding, “For that parliament has to give the ECP legal cover.”

If parliament failed to do so within the specified time, the ECP might move apex court for directions, the minister added.

The tricky issue of delimitation

The ECP had given the government November 10 deadline to amend the Constitution, paving the way for re-marking boundaries of the constituencies on the basis of the provisional census results of the headcount.

The government last week had tabled the constitution amendment bill, delineating allocation of seats to the provinces in the National Assembly in proportion to the provisional results of the population census conducted in April this year.

The bill has a clause, giving the legal cover to the ECP to conduct delimitations on the basis of the provisional census data. The current law allows re-marking of boundaries once the final results of the population headcount are officially published.

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After an initial agreement to go for it, there is a deadlock between the mainstream parties on both sides of the aisle, with main opposition parties, the PPP, withdrawing its support followed by the MQM and the PTI.

The PPP says that the government should first get the consent of the Council of Common Interests — the highest constitutional body that deals with matters between the federation and the federating units.

“The government has called the meeting of the CCI on Monday,” the law minister informed the Senate to discuss the issues related to the population census.

Some opposition parties, especially the PPP which rules Sindh and the MQM-P that represents urban Sindh, have been raising questions over the authenticity of the census exercise conducted after a long gap of 18 years.

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Hamid said: “The ECP needs to start delimitations at least nine months before the elections to complete it on time. Under new election laws the ECP has to complete the polling scheme and delimitations at least four months before the next general elections which are due in July-August next year.”

The Senate chairman said all political parties wanted polls to be held on time and it was the duty of the ECP to organise elections.

“Organising elections is the duty of the ECP under Article 219 of the Constitution. Has ECP invoked Article 220 that binds every institution to come to aide to the ECP,” he questioned.

Rabbani also asked the minister when the ECP did give directives to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and why the bureau was so slow in completing different stages of the census exercise.

Delimitation bill: Abbasi tasked with wooing opposition

He called the officials of the PCS for a briefing to the senators in the committee room on Friday.

Meanwhile, responding to a calling attention notice on the reported large scale emigration of the Hazara Community to Australia and other countries, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said: “The federal government has no statistics how many people of the persecuted community have left the country.”

He said in the passport there was no separate column for ethnicity nor segregated data about ethnicity of the people entering or leaving the country was maintained at immigration desks.

Stalemate over delimitation

Chaudhry claimed Hazaras and other smaller communities were being targeted in the country under a conspiracy to defame Pakistan.

Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf gave the Senate in-camera briefing on Indian’s moving to the International Court of Justice against the death sentence awarded by a military court to Kulbhushan Jadhav over charges of terrorism and spying for India’s intelligence agency.