ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has refused to hold immediate elections and proposed that the earliest possible date is October 2022.
The President’s Secretariat had earlier asked ECP to propose dates for holding general elections within ninety days from the date of dissolution of the National Assembly, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.
In a letter by the President’s Secretariat, the Election Commission of Pakistan has been conveyed that clause 5(A) of the Article 48 and clause 2 of Article 224 of the constitution provide that the President shall appoint a date, not later than ninety days from the date of dissolution of the National Assembly for holding general elections.
In its reply, the ECP said though it is fully committed to hold election, the commission would require at least four additional months to complete the exercise of delimitation. “Election could safely be held honestly just fairly as ordained in Article 18(3) of the Constitution, in October 2022.”
The ECP has the delimitation of constituencies is one of the foundational steps towards election. According to Article 51(5) of the constitution and Section 17 of the Elections Act, 2017, delimitation of constituencies is conducted on the basis of population census. It said the delimitation of national and provincial assemblies was carried out on the provisional result of the 6th census published on January 3, 2018.
It added that the final publication of official results of census is a constitutional requirement for the delimitation of constituencies for the next general elections. “In case of any inaction or delay on the part any government to perform its duties and to assist the commission, the delay in conduct of delimitation cannot be attributed to the commission by any stretch of imagination.
The ECP has requested a meeting with the President for further deliberations.
Delay in constitutional delimitations
A day earlier, the ECP blamed the government for delaying the delimitation of constituencies. Reacting to criticism by former cabinet members Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Shireen Mazari, Fawad Chaudhry and Farrukh Habib, the commission said it was meeting its constitutional obligations.
The ECP said while it was committed to fulfilling its legal duties, other institutions and personalities should also timely meet their legal and constitutional obligations. It pointed out that the number of National Assembly constituencies had reduced to 266 from 272 after merger of the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and reduction of seats in tribal areas from 12 to six.
The ECP said it required fresh delimitation, which was not possible in the absence of official census results. It said the chief election commissioner had written a letter to Imran Khan on May 7, 2020 seeking his intervention to get the official results notified.
The commission said letters had also been written to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs as well as secretaries of the Senate, National Assembly and the Bureau of Statistics. The ECP said reminders were sent pointing out that delimitation of constituencies was the constitutional responsibility of the commission, but it could not proceed until the final census results were officially notified.
The process of delimitation finally started when the official census results were notified on May 7, 2021, but it was stopped after the government announced a digital census. It added that the commission had also written letters to the government on December 30, 2021 and January 21, 2022, urging to expedite the census process.
