Pakistan People's Party leader urges EC to announce date for general elections

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party leader Sherry Rehman urged the country's election commission to announce the election date as per the provisions of Article 224 of the Constitution, The News International reported. Rehman said, "Our Constitution binds the Election Commission of Pakistan to conduct general elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly, however, there is no constitutional requirement for conducting delimitation."

Rehman called on the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce the election date to fulfill the constitutional obligations of holding polls in Pakistan within 90 days. She said the PPP supported the election being conducted under the new census in the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting after it was agreed that the existing seats will not be changed. She said, "Since there will be no change in the existing national and provincial seats, the process of delimitation should be completed quickly." PPP leader said that as per the Constitution, the ECP needs to conduct general elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly. She added, "We request the ECP to announce the date of elections as per Article 224 of the Constitution," The News International reported.

Meanwhile, PPP senators Waqar Mehdi and Palwasha Khan in a joint statement stated that general elections within 90 days are a constitutional requirement, according to The News International report. They said that it is the constitutional responsibility of the electoral watchdog to fulfil the constitutional requirements. PPP leaders said the delimitation of constituencies is not a constitutional hindrance to holding polls within 90 days. They added that not conducting general elections within 90 days will be a violation of the Constitution, The News International reported.

On Thursday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced that it will carry out fresh delimitation of constituencies. The announcement of ECP makes it almost certain that general elections in Pakistan might not be held within the constitutionally stipulated limit of 90 days, Pakistan-based Dawn reported. In July, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) gave approval to the results of the 2023 digital census, making it compulsory for Pakistan's electoral watchdog to carry out fresh delimitation.

The development comes after the dissolution of the National Assembly and the farewell of the Shehbaz Sharif-led coalition government on August 9. According to the schedule announced by ECP on Thursday, the electoral watchdog will complete the delimitation exercise by mid-December. Pakistan's electoral watchdog stated that administrative arrangements for delimitation, including the requisition of maps and other necessary data, description of districts and tehsils from provinces, and obtaining district census reports will be completed between August 22-30.

Delimitation committees will be given training from September 1-4. District quotas for national and provincial assemblies will be given to delimitation committees by September 5-7. Committees will prepare preliminary delimitations of constituencies from September 8 to October 7, Dawn reported. Preliminary delimitations will be released on October 9.

Following this, people will be able to present their objections and suggestions to the ECP on the initial delimitation from October 10 -November 8. Pakistan's electoral watchdog will hear and make decisions regarding objections from November 10 to December 9 and the final list of constituencies will be published on December 14.