ISLAMABAD - The National Assembly Thursday adopted constitutional amendment regarding ‘fresh delimitation of constituencies’ on the basis of 6th population census’ provisional results, with 242 votes.

The amendment moved by Law Minister Zahid Hamid required 228 votes to pass and was opposed only by one lawmaker, independent MNA from southern Punjab Jamshed Dasti.

Interestingly, out of 188 ruling PML-N lawmakers, around 60 were missing in the house and the gap was filled with the support of opposition’s nearly eighty MNAs.

Among prominent absentees were PTI chief Imran Khan, JUI-F head Fazlur Rahman and federal minister Riaz Pirzada.

Before the voting process, the law minister and parliamentary affairs minister, Railways Minister Saad Rafique and some others were seen ensuring the presence of their party legislators to smoothly pass the amendment.

The two main opposition parties (PPP and PTI) expressed reservations over delay in the voting for the amendment even after the consensus from both sides.

They said it was responsibility of the government to maintain required strength to pass the amendment so the numerical strength should not be an issue from the government side.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariq Ullah also criticised the government for facing problem to ensure numerical strength to pass the bill.

MQM’s Faraooq Sattar, on his turn, demanded to conduct population census afresh in some of the areas of the country. “It will be pre-election rigging if the census was not revised,” he commented.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill says: “Allocation of National Assembly seats should be made on the basis of provisional results of the 2017 census without changing the existing total number of general seats (272) and women seats (60) and retaining the share of the Fata (12)”.

According to the proposed reallocation, seats will be increased for Balochistan (2 general seats + 2 women seats), KP (4+1) and federal capital (1+0). The seats for the Punjab will decrease by nine (7 general and 2 women) while the seats for Sindh will remain unchanged.

The statement of the bill said: “The Council of Common Interests (CCI) in its meeting held on November 13, 2017 has approved publication of the provisional results of Census 2017 for purpose of article 51(5) as provided in this bill.

“The Council has also decided that third party validation will carry out one per cent census blocks proportionately in each province throughout the country selected by random computer ballot, before the final results are compiled.

“This will help address reservations expressed by the Sindh government/ PPP-P, MQM, PTI, PML-N, JUI-F, JI, QWP, PkMAP and ANP and members of Fata regarding the provisional results. The percentage of census blocks for which validation is to be carried out may change if so decided by the CCI”.

Article 51(5) of the constitution provides that seats in the National Assembly shall be allocated to each province, the Fata and the federal capital on basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census officially published.

The centre and provinces, last week, removing the reservations of Sindh, developed consensus on expediting delimitation process and holding general elections on time. The meeting developed consensus on carrying out delimitation process on the basis of provisional results of population census.

Earlier, there was deadlock between the government and the opposition persisted in the last National Assembly session as the government thrice failed to get the constitutional amendment passed due to the numerical strength. The PPP, the main opposition party, had compelled the government to deliberate the matter in CCI to remove reservations of the Sindh province.

 

Fresh delimitation bill gets consensus NA nod