Tuesday, November 07, 2017

Pak Election 2018


The term of the current National and provincial Assemblies of Pakistan expires in June 2018, when a caretaker government is to be formed which should conduct elections for all the assemblies within 3 months and transfer power to them.

As usual, this routine matter has been made an object of controversy by the delay in holding census by the federal and provincial governments and criticism of the recently concluded and announced census results.

The ruling PMLN wants to bring a constitutional amendment but other parties are not prepared to vote with them. In the recently passed Electoral reforms bill they cheated them by inserting a clause to enable their disgraced leader Nawaz Sharif who was disqualified for misrepresentation to become party leader again and forcing a vote while many opposition senators had gone to say their Friday prayers. They fear something worse this time.

Since the urban population of Sindh has increased substantially, the Peoples party is playing tricks to ensure that the elections are held on 20 year old census results and delimitations which place about 70 percent seats in rural areas where PP wins by virtue of its affiliated landlord oppression.
The relevant clause of the Pakistan Constitution post 18th amendment is as follows:

25[51. National Assembly.- (1) There shall be three hundred and forty-two
seats for members in the National Assembly, including seats reserved for
women and non-Muslims.

(2) A person shall be entitled to vote if-
(a) he is a citizen of Pakistan;
(b) he is not less than eighteen years of age;
(c) his name appears on the electoral roll; and
(d) he is not declared by a competent court to be of unsound mind.
(3) The seats in the National Assembly referred to in clause (1),
except as provided in clause (4), shall be allocated to each Province, the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Federal Capital as under:–

                                                General Seats Women Total
Balochistan                                             14       3             17
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa                              35       8             43
Punjab                                                   148     35           183
Sindh                                                       61     14             75
Federally Administered Tribal Areas       12       -              12
Federal Capital                                          2                        2
Total                                                      272     60           332

(4) In addition to the number of seats referred to in clause (3), there
shall be, in the National Assembly, ten seats reserved for non-Muslims.

(5) The seats in the National Assembly shall be allocated to each
Province, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Federal Capital on
the basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census officially
published.

In para 1 the total number of NA seats has been fixed at 342. In para 2 the qualification voters has been defined. In para 3 the regional distribution of seats as per census data available at the time of 18th amendment has been given. In para 4 the reserved seats of non-Muslim population have been defined. In para 5 the need for redistribution of seats among regions according to latest census has been stipulated.

The requirements for the provincial assemblies have been given in article 106 of the Constitution and there seems no problem in their delimitation.

The relevant institutions for census and electoral management are the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and Election Commission of Pakistan respectively.

The results of 2017 Census in Pakistan have been published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on its website:

The Tehsil wise results are published by PBS on their website:

This is the data required by the Election Commission to carry out fresh distribution of constituencies according to constitution para 5 above and their delimitation.
If the results of the census are placed on the official website for public reference, they are published for all intents and purposes and there seems no logical reason why they should need additional verification by the prime minister or his cabinet or any other group of politicians.

Similarly, the Election Commission is an independent constitutional institution and should not require any instructions from the prime minister or other political element to do its work. It should obtain an authenticated copy of the census results from the PBS and get on with fulfilling the constitutional requirement of updating the distribution of NA seats and their delimitation according to the latest census results so that it may hold the General Elections 2018 in time.

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