ISLAMABAD: The
Senate on 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.
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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 province 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.
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.*
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