Senate passes Delimitation Bill

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Tuesday passed the constitutional amendment to consider provisional results of census 2017 to make delimitation of constituencies, paving the way for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to carry out fresh delimitation of constituencies ahead of the next general elections.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed presented the Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2017 aimed for delimitation of constituencies which was passed with more than two third majority votes. A total of 84 Senators voted in favor of the bill and one lawmaker opposed it.

The bill will decrease nine National Assembly seats (7 general and two women seats) of the most populous Punjab province and will increase five seats (four general and women seats )of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three seats of the largest province of Balochistan (two general, one women seats) and one of federal capital. The number of NA seats for Sindh pro-vince and FATA will remain the same.

A total of 82 members in the House of 104 members voted in favor of the motion to present the bill. In favor of the clause 2, 82 Senators voted in favor of it and none of the lawmaker opposed it while 83 Senators voted in favor of preamble and title of the bill and no one opposed it.

The parliamentarians cast 84 votes in favour of the amendment, which required 69 to pass with a two-thirds majority in the house of 104. The House was asked for division before passage of the bill and 84 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill and one lawmaker opposed it.

The Bill seeks to carry out fresh delimitation of constituencies on the basis of officially published census results. It asks to allow delimitation for the General Elections 2018 on the basis of the provisional results of the 6th Population and Housing Census 2017.

The amendment sought in Article 51 (5) will allow re-allocating seats as per provisional result of census. The existing Article 51 (5) requires that 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”. However, this bill will allow having delimitation on the basis of provisional result of census. It is to mention that National Assembly has already passed the bill by 242-1 vote on November 16, 2017.

The Leader of the House in Senate Raja Zafar ul Haq congratulated the entire House over passage of this bill.

He said the passage of this bill was crucial for continuity of democracy and thanked all the parties who voted in favor of it.

Later, the House also passed the COMSATS University Islamabad Bill, 2017 through voice voting.