Polls by mid-Feb, ECP tells ANP

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday put at rest rumours about how long the general elections could be delayed, telling the Awami National Party (ANP) that polls would be held by mid-February, and if the delimitation was completed earlier, it might be held by January-end.

The assurance was given during a consultative meeting with an ANP delegation on the roadmap to general election. Representatives of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Balochistan National Party (BNP) also held meetings separately with the commission here.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja chaired the meetings, which were attended by the commission members, the secretary and senior ECP officers.

The ANP delegation was led by its Secretary General Mian Iftikhar Hussain, comprising central spokesman Zahid Khan, Khushdil Khan, Advocate, and Abdul Rahim Wazir, Advocate.

On behalf of the Balochistan Awami Party, Naseebullah, Manzoor Kakar, Noor Muhammad Domar, Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran appeared and Balochistan National Party was represented by Abdul Karim Noshrawani, Sana Jamali and Danesh Kumar.

The commission, ANP leaders said, assured them of squeezing the timelines of delimitation to the maximum possible extent. The commission also assured them elections would not go beyond mid-February.

According to a statement released by the commission, the ANP team insisted on date and schedule for the electoral exercise, if conducting the election within 90 days was not feasible. They briefed the Election Commission that election should be held within 90 days as per the Constitution and that the Election Commission should have consulted political parties before initiating delimitation, as the commission could not reduce or increase the seats given in the provinces given under the Constitution. Therefore, there was no need for new delimitation.

The ECP, they said, could only accommodate seats within the province and that the commission was a constitutional body and they have full faith in it. Therefore, the delimitation decision taken by the commission must have been taken after due deliberation. Therefore, now the date for elections should also be announced and schedule so that political parties and people could become satisfied.

The CEC said that according to the schedule issued by the commission, the delimitation work was to be completed within 120 days on December 14, 2023. The election schedule would be announced soon after. It is also possible that the election schedule would be announced in the next few days after reducing the duration of the constituency.

The Balochistan Awami Party delegation supported the ECP decision of carrying out delimitation and members of the delegation said that because the results of the census had been published, not going for delimitation as per the new census would be an insult to political parties, candidates and the public. The Balochistan Awami Party expressed full confidence in the ECP and also expressed confidence in several decisions taken by it in the past.

BNP representative Agha Hassan Baloch said the ECP should try to hold elections within 90 days. He noted the new census appeared to be faulty, in which the population of Balochistan had been reduced. “Therefore, our party believes that there is no use of new delimitation. If the Election Commission believes that delimitation is necessary, then the process should be corrected,” he said.

The CEC assured the delegations that the commission would ensure immediate elections after reducing the duration of delimitation.

Talking to media persons outside the Election Commission, Mian Iftikhar said the ECP had assured completing the delimitation of constituencies on fast track to enable it to hold general election not later than mid-February.