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The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday issued a preliminary delimitation of constituencies ahead of the next general elections, reducing the total number of National Assembly seats from the current 342 to 336.
According to the ECP’s preliminary report, which is available on its website, the number of general seats in the NA will decrease from 272 to 266. Of these, 16 seats have been allocated for Balochistan; 45 for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; 141 for Punjab; 61 for Sindh; and 3 for Islamabad. In addition, 60 seats are reserved for women—4 for Balochistan; 10 for KP; 32 for Punjab; 14 for Sindh—and 10 seats are reserved for non-Muslims.
The report states that each National Assembly constituency in KP has been demarcated at 788,933 people; Islamabad at 667,789; Punjab at 780,069; Sindh at 784,500; and Balochistan at 77,946. For the provincial assemblies, quota per seat in KP stands at 308,713; Punjab at 370,336; Sindh at 368,112; and Balochistan at 241,865.
The total strength of all four provincial assemblies in general elections has been fixed at 593—115 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; 297 in Punjab; 130 in Sindh; and 51 in Balochistan. In addition, the Balochistan Assembly would have 14 reserved seats; the KP Assembly 30; Punjab Assembly 74; and Sindh Assembly 38.
The ECP has listed NA-1 to NA-45 for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; NA-46 to NA-48 for Islamabad; NA-49 to NA-189 for Punjab; NA-190 to NA-250 for Sindh; and NA-251 to NA-266 for Balochistan.
The ECP has stressed that the “prime objective” of issuing the preliminary report is to invite “representations and provide practical information” to all stakeholders on how the electoral body is delimiting constituencies to ensure free and fair elections in accordance with law. Citing Section 20 of the Election Act, 2017, the ECP said “all constituencies shall, as far as practicable, be delimited having regard to the distribution of population in geographically compact areas, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and public convenience and other cognate factors” to ensure homogeneity.
According to the preliminary report, the share of seats in the National Assembly and in provincial assemblies was developed in accordance with the officially published results of the 6th Population and Housing Census, 2017. “The population of province/area was divided by the total number of general seats and the average population or quota per National Assembly seat was obtained,” it said, adding that a similar formula was used for the provincial assemblies.