LAHORE: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal the general elections would be held on the basis of the old census data.
Talking to a private television channel, the PML-N leader said the government is committed to hold next general elections on time.
He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has already assured to hold the next elections without delay and the responsibility of the election commission to provide the election date and finalize schedule.
The federal minister said the tenure of existing assemblies will end in mid of next month and the elections will be held in October or November this year.
Replying to a question, he said that the general elections would be held on the basis of old census data as the delimitations of constituencies are still pending after the new population census.
He said holding elections in October with new data from the census is not possible. He said the elections will be held as per the 2017 census. “If elections are held in October, then it will be conducted on old census data,” he said.
The planning minister said that the authorities found irregularities in the population count of some areas in the recent census. He added the federal government extended the census deadline on the request of the provinces.
The federal minister said that a two-thirds majority is required for a constitutional amendment. He said that the country needs reforms which can be made if the government has a strong mandate.
Meanwhile, PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah said the party had formally launched its election activities and it would field candidates in all constituencies of the province.
Addressing a press conference at the party secretariat, the interior minister Rana Sanaullah affirmed that no alliances will be formed with other parties for the elections. However, he said seat adjustments could be made in a few constituencies under unavoidable circumstances.
He said the party meeting was called to discuss the agenda of effective participation in the upcoming general election, and fielding of candidates in all the Punjab and National Assembly constituencies.
There were a total of 297 Punjab Assembly and 141 NA constituencies in the province, and the PML-N would not leave any of them uncontested, he added.
