ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to call a session of the National Assembly (NA) on Nov 16 to vote on the new delimitation bill after the political parties reached consensus on the issue in a meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) presided over by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday.
The Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting agreed on rechecking/auditing of the provisional census results from a third party to gauge the reliability of the census data and conduct of the next general elections on time.
During the meeting, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah stated that if the results of the population census were verified by a neutral third party, the province would accept its findings.
Subsequently, PM Abbasi agreed to have the results of specific census blocks in Sindh verified, after which the province supported the bill for fresh delimitation of constituencies in accordance with the latest population figures.
As per reports, lawmakers from the government and its allies have been directed to ensure their presence at the assembly session for the voting.
Earlier, leaders of all parliamentary parties in the National Assembly had agreed in a session with Speaker Ayaz Sadiq over legislation for delimitation of constituencies in the light of the new census figures. Consequently, the constitutional amendment bill had been tabled in the assembly for approval. However, the PPP and MQM-P backtracked, later on, insisting their reservations with regards to the census figures were addressed in the first place.
