ISLAMABAD  -  Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Associa­tion (SCBA) Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to take notice of discrepancies in delimitation of the constituencies instead of endorsing every act of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

The PBC and the SCBA in separate statements empha­sized the necessity for all po­litical parties and independent 

candidates to be afforded a level playing field and equal op­portunities, ensuring transparency and fairness in the elector­al process. PBC Vice-Chairman Haroon-ur-Rashid and its Chair­man Hassan Raza Pasha expressed their serious concerns over the conduct of the CEC, regarding election procedures, delimi­tation, and seat allocations and highlighted the growing percep­tion that, in the presence of the incumbent CEC, elections can­not be conducted freely and transparently. The SCBAP stated that it believes that “in order to achieve the aforesaid objectives, the present Chief Election Commissioner should go home as un­der him, fair and impartial elections with equal opportunity for all, are not possible.” The PBC statement said that a glaring ex­ample is the matter of allocation of two National Assembly seats to the CEC’s own native District (Jehlum), with a population of 1,382,000(appx.) while District Hafizabad, with a population of around 1,320,000 (appx.), is allocated only one seat. A sim­ilar imbalance is observed in the allocation of seats for District Rawalpindi. It added that despite its lower population com­pared to Gujranwala Division, an additional seat has been allo­cated, raising questions about the transparency of the electoral process. It is evident that the conduct of the CECP raises seri­ous doubts about the integrity of the general elections, present­ing an environment that appears to lack transparency entirely.

It maintained that in light of these circumstances, the PBC cannot turn a blind eye to these critical matters. They stress that the Supreme Court of Pakistan, as the highest Constitution­al Court, must take notice of these discrepancies instead of en­dorsing every act of the CECP. The PBC firmly believes that the primary objective is not merely holding elections but conduct­ing them in a free, fair, and transparent manner, providing equal opportunities to all stakeholders.

The PBC said that with this in mind, the PBC will soon convene an all Pakistan Representative convention to formulate and an­nounce a line of action and date for a lawyers’ movement in con­sultation with SCBA. The aim is to ensure the cause of free, fair, and transparent general elections which is not possible in the presence of incumbent Chief Election Commissioner of Paki­stan, as it seems, he has different codes for every political party or individual. It continued that the PBC remains committed to upholding democratic principles and fostering transparency in the electoral process for the benefit of all citizens.