National Assembly likely to pass fresh delimitation bill today

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Natio­nal Assembly is likely to pass a much debated fresh delimitation bill on Thursday (today) seeking fresh delimitation of constituencies ahead of the upcoming general election on the basis of provincial results of the census.

Speaker National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq told media persons after presiding over a meeting of parliamentary leaders, that they have finally reached at a consensus regarding the constitutional amendments bill 2017 seeking fresh delimitation of constituencies.

He added that he also called another meeting of parliamentary leaders before the National Assembly’s session on Thursday before the session for seeking formal approval of all the parties because PPP didn’t managed to attend the meeting on Wednesday.

The participants of the meeting have also agreed to present a bill in the lower house with the aim to restore Sections 7B and 7C of the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002 in their original form. In the Elections Act 2017, the above-mentioned sections, which relate to the status of Ahmadis, had been omitted.

Ayaz Sadiq contacted, opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah and take him in confidence regarding the meeting and he confirmed that they had decided to pass the delimitation of constituencies’ bill on Thursday.

Shah added that the PPP had no objections to the passage of the bill since its demand that the Council of Common Interests (CCI) would have to approve of the bill had been accepted.