IHC declares delimitation of eight districts as void
The judgement further ordered the ECP to follow the rules for proportion of population
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday declared the delimitations of eight districts including six from Punjab and two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa void.
A single bench of the IHC ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct the delimitation of eight districts including six from Punjab and two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa anew.
Justice Amir Farooq pronounced the judgement on more than 40 identical petitions declaring the delimitations of Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Jhang, Jhelum, Chakwal, Toba Tek Singh, Lower Dir and Batgram void.
The judgement further ordered the ECP to follow the rules for proportion of population that have been followed in the delimitation of other constituencies.
Earlier on Saturday, as the government prepares to hand power over to caretaker administration, President Mamnoon Hussain approved July 25 date, which will see Pakistan s more than 100 million voters getting the opportunity to vote for both the national and provincial assemblies.
The five-year term of the country s government and National Assembly ends on May 31, after which an interim prime minister and administration will take over.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who became prime minister in August, had previously said on May 14 that elections would be held that month, but hadn’t specified a date. The Election Commission of Pakistan had proposed holding the vote between July 25 and July 27.
All 342 members of the country’s National Assembly will face voters, which they last did in 2013.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and opposition leader Khursheed Shah named former chief justice of Pakistan Justice (r) Nasirul Mulk as the caretaker PM.
The 70-year-old country experienced its first democratic transition of power in 2013, when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came out on top as the biggest party.
Nawaz Sharif, the party s leader, was dismissed from his job as prime minister by the Supreme Court in July last year for an omission in a wealth declaration to parliament.
The general elections are largely expected to pit the PML-N against its main rival, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party led by former cricket star Imran Khan.
Pakistan’s National Assembly is the lower chamber of its Parliament, which also has a Senate. Senators are chosen by provincial legislators, who’ll also face the country’s more than 100 million voters that day.
