ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has prepared three formulas that it will present to the federal cabinet for new delimitation of constituencies following the recent census held in Pakistan.
The proposed formulas will be submitted to the cabinet for approval to finalise the reallocation of seats in the National Assembly (NA) before the next general elections.
Under the first of the three formulas, it is proposed that the number of seats for Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh and the Federal Capital be increased while those for Punjab and FATA be decreased, according to the officially published provisional results of census 2017, without changing the existing total number of general seats (272) and women seats (60).
The second formula proposes to maintain the number of FATA seats (at 12) by reallocating fewer new seats to KP, Sindh and Punjab.
The third formula proposes to increase the total number of general seats in the NA from 272 to 300, maintaining the number of FATA seats at 12, and increasing the number of all other constituencies’ seats proportionate to the census results.
These proposed formulas are based on provisional census results since the official census results have not been published yet.
Under the law, the ECP is authorised to carry out new delimitations of constituencies after every census. However, a new legislation would be required to allow the ECP to do so on the basis of provisional census results.
According to sources, the ECP has called a meeting on October 27 to discuss constituency delimitation and census results with the officials of law ministry and statistics department.