ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary session of the political parties to discuss the issue of delimitation of constituencies is being chaired by National Assembly (NA) Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday.
As per reports, all the political parties’ representatives are ensuring a presence in Tuesday’s parliamentary session so that a strategy can be devised regarding the issue of delimitation of constituencies in conformance with the data obtained from the latest census ahead of 2018 general elections. However, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) representatives are yet to join Tuesday’s session.
Previously, the political parties decided to keep the total number of NA seats intact while agreeing to change the quota of the seats in the provinces in conformance with the provisional census results.
However, the main opposition parties comprising of PPP, PTI and MQM objected to the proposal at the time when the appropriate legislation had to be passed in the NA.
In addition, attendance in the NA proceedings on Thursday and Friday remained low as many government lawmakers seemed uninterested in attending the session. The government on November 6 prorogued the NA session which irked the NA Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah.
The ECP has stated that it is crucial that the Parliament approves necessary amendments to the legislation in line with the recent census if the next general elections are to be held as per the schedule.
Moreover, PPP is demanding to hold the elections on time whereas the PTI is calling for early elections.
