ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary committee formed to evolve consensus on a constitutional amendment to delimit constituencies based on the recently held population census on Wednesday failed yet again to reach an agreement on the issue.
“The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has said that it will go to the Supreme Court (SC) for directions if the parliament fails to decide on something, but we hope to resolve the matter amongst ourselves,” National Assembly (NA) Speaker Ayaz Sadiq told reporters after a meeting with parliamentary leaders.
Sadiq said that though a consensus had not been reached regarding the amendment, there was an agreement over holding elections in a timely manner. However, he dismissed NA Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah’s suggestion that the elections be held based on the previous census, saying the law and the constitution did not allow for it.
The NA speaker also denied reports of a heated argument between Awami Muslim League (AML) Chairman Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai and said that everyone had presented their point of view in a cordial environment.
Speaking to journalists, Federal Minister for Law Zaid Hamid stressed the importance of having the constitutional amendment passed as the government could approve the provisional census results using a simple majority vote but a constitutional amendment — which requires a two-third vote to be initiated — is required for delimitation of constituencies to take place.
Speaking to journalists earlier, Sheikh Rasheed had said that the government does not have the numbers for a constitutional amendment. “The meeting of parliamentary leaders has failed,” he said.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that he did not foresee the Pakistan People’s Party’s reservations being addressed.
Speaking to the media, ECP Director General Arshad Khan said that the election watchdog had asked the government to pass the amendment by Nov 10. However, he said that even if the government is able to do it within the next 10 days, the ECP can begin its work on time.
He said that the ECP requires four months to complete the process of delimitation of the constituencies and added that the elections can be held on time if the commission is timely provided with the provisional census report. “If a decision is not made in time, holding the elections [according to the schedule] will become difficult,” he added.
The law minister had introduced the constitutional amendment bill in the NA on Nov 2 after an “agreement” among all factions was reached after a two-day meeting of all parliamentary leaders.
But soon after the introduction of the bill, PPP’s parliamentary leader Syed Naveed Qamar had declared the move “unconstitutional”, alleging that the government had ‘tricked’ them by saying that the bill was being moved in the light of the decision of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) though it was not the case.
Similarly, MQM parliamentary leader Dr Farooq Sattar had also criticised the government’s move to introduce the bill without taking any step to allay the concerns of Sindh. He said the MQM had serious concerns over the census results and suggested delimitation on the basis of number of voters, instead of the population.
The PPP has since demanded that the amendment be approved by the CCI before being brought to the parliament while the MQM has suggested that the delimitation of constituencies be based on voter lists rather than the recently-held census.
