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.
.
