KARACHI: Pakistan People’s party (PPP) leader Raza Rabbani on Monday emphasised that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) does not have the capacity to interfere in Parliament’s proceedings.
Earlier, both the government and opposition had over the initial delimitation that the ECP had issued on March 5. The commission had issued the initial delimitation of national and provincial assemblies on the basis of a population census that was conducted in the latter part of the previous year.
“There is no question of transgressing into the domain of the Election Commission of Pakistan,” stated the former Senate chairman. “But the ECP must have read the terms of reference.”
“I believe that all institutions working in the country should remain within their constitutional limits and not meddle with one another’s constitutional jurisdiction,” he added.
National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed, who was heading a special committee formed to probe into the matter, had rejected the preliminary draft, stating that the delimitation should be in accordance with voter lists.
Furthermore, the committee observed that in various constituencies, the delimitation had not been carried out in a clockwise manner beginning from the north.
The process was termed as pre-election rigging and a violation of election rules by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Daniyal Aziz. “We will try to gather all information and objections regarding the initial draft by March 25,” he had said.
Arif Alvi from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) had stated that delimitation without taking the constituency’s population into account could be challenged in court, causing a delay in the general elections.
However, in a briefing to the ECP, the committee’s secretary had announced that the process was completed according to the law but admitted that there could be errors which would be eliminated.
“The final delimitation will be done by May 5 and elections will be held on time,” he said.