ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday fixed for regular hearing a PTI petition seeking invalidation of the delimitation schedule announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on April 11.
The case was fixed before a regular bench for open hearing when Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan considering the effect of Fata merger into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province under 25th Amendment ordered removal of office objections and fixation of the case.
Speaking to Dawn, Advocate Chaudhry Faisal Hussain, who pleaded the case along with former minister for information and broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, said he would move an application on Wednesday for urgent hearing, with the request that the matter be taken up this week. He quoted Justice Ahsan’s order as stating that the acts and omission of the ECP with regard to holding of free and fair elections and the points raised in the petition needed consideration, therefore, the office was directed to number the petition and fix the same before any available bench.
In its petition, the PTI had asked the court to declare the delimitation notification ‘illegal’ and ‘unconstitutional’ and that the delimitation notified on May 3, 2018 be held exhaustive for all intents and purposes of the elections until new census took place.
The petition contended that the endeavour by the ECP to carry out new delimitation of provincial and national constituencies all over Pakistan and subsequent scheduled issued amounted to a departure from Article 51(5) of the Constitution. As the delimitation exercise conducted in 2018 on the command of the Constitution had to be considered final till fresh census, the ECP was bound to hold elections on the basis of delimitation conducted previously, the petitioner asserted.
According to the petition, Article 51(5) of the Constitution through an amendment had allowed the ECP to carry out the process of delimitation on the basis of the provisional results of the 2017 census. In pursuant, the delimitation exercise was carried out by the ECP and the entire Pakistan was divided into 342 constituencies of the National Assembly.
The petition argued that the exercise of delimitation of constituencies conducted by the ECP through its notification of May 3, 2018 was exhaustive until a new census takes place. The SC was therefore urged to interfere forthwith to save citizens from ‘illegal’ and ‘unconstitutional’ delimitation.
