Punjab to lose seven seats in fresh delimitation list

• KP, FATA, Islamabad territories witness increase in seats in light of preliminary delimitation list

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday published preliminary delimitation list of constituencies of national and provincial assemblies.

According to the preliminary list, Punjab’s share in the lower house has been reduced from 148 to 141 seats in accordance with the Population Census 2017; on the other hand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Islamabad have seen an increase in their seats.

KP made the most from the new delimitation as its share has gone up from 35 to 39 seats. Similarly, Balochistan secured two more seats, increasing its tally from 14 to 16 seats, whereas the federal capital added one to its current two seats.

In the light of the new delimitation list, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) will now have three constituencies; Punjab 141; Sindh 61; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 39; Balochistan 16.

Similarly, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) will have 12 constituencies, an increase of two seats, in the National Assembly. It has been divided into 12 territorial constituencies on the basis of population census as it has been allocated 12 seats under article 51(3) of the Constitution.

The quota per seat in the NA has been determined by population divided by the number of seats.  For instance, the KP population has gone up to 30 million and it has 39 seats; therefore, the total population on one seat would be 782,651.

Meanwhile, the ICT’s population was recorded 2.001 million in the census; FATA’s 4.9 million; Sindh’s 47 million; and Balochistan’s 12.33 million.

According to the preliminary list shows that the Baluchistan Assembly has 51 seats; KP Assembly has 99 seats, Punjab Assembly has 297 seats, Sindh Assembly has 130 seats. The one seat of KP assembly would be consisting of 308317 people, Punjab 370,429, Sindh 368410, and Balochistan 242,054.

The notification further depicts that the allocation of seats of the NA and each PAs was worked out to two decimal fractions and then rounded off to indicate the whole number of seats for search district.

The prime objective of compiling this preliminary report and list of constituencies is to invite representations and provide practical information to all the stakeholders. The ECP has given the 30 days to highlight any objection regarding the delimitation of constituencies.

The ECP notification stated that after the enactment of the 24th Constitutional amendment the number of seats in the National Assembly is re-allocated to the provinces, the federal capital, and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Accordingly, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics officially published the provisional results of the 6th Population Census vide Notification No.1(2)/2004-PBS(C)  dated January 3, 2018.

Pursuant to the above-quoted provisions of the law, the ECP constituted five Delimitation Committees for the purpose of delimitation of constituencies of the National and provincial assemblies, vide Office Order No.F.8(2)/2018-Elec-I dated January 15, 2018.