ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has added a National Assembly seat for the federal capital to accommodate Islamabad’s population of two million.

The new constituencies for Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) are NA-52, NA-53 and NA-54, which are home to 700,744, 670,683 and 630,152 people respectively.

The basic dissection has been made in what is currently NA-49, which has been divided in two. Some parts of NA-48, Islamabad’s other National Assembly constituency, have been cut off to make up the three National Assembly seats.The new NA-52 and 53 constituencies constitute what was NA-49.

Starting just ahead of the Shakrial village, NA-52 covers the area up to Rawat, the ICT boundary that borders Rawalpindi district’s Kalar Syedan Tehsil, and includes Sihala and Chira.

Proposed constituencies are NA-52, NA-53, NA-54

Towards the north, the new constituency includes Alipur, Jandala, Kuri, Farash, Tarlai and so on – including the areas around Japan Road – up to Pind Baghwal.

Other than a few pockets of recently developed housing schemes, nearly all of NA-52 is rural.

The other constituency carved out of NA-49 – the proposed NA-53 – includes rural areas starting from Chattar (which borders the Murree tehsil of Rawalpindi district). This constituency includes Phulgran, Lakhwal, Bhara Kahu, Saidpur, Bari Imam, Shahzad Town, Margalla Town and Soan, near Faizabad.

NA-53 also includes urban sectors such as G-5, G-6, G-7, G-8, G-9, F-5, F-6, F-7, F-8, I-9 and voters registered in Prime Minister House and the Presidency. G-9 and I-9, which were previously part of NA-48, have now been included in NA-53.

The capital’s third National Assembly constituency, NA-54, is largely the same as NA-48, but without G-9 and I-9.

NA-54 includes I-10, I-11, I-12, G-10, G-11, F-10, F-11, D-12 and E-11, as well as rural areas such as Golra, Shah Allah Ditta and Tarnol, moving up to Jhangi Syedan.

Deputy Mayor Zeeshan Naqvi, who is expected to be granted the PML-N ticket from NA-54, hailed the ECP’s decision to add another seat for the capital.

“Not only has the population of Islamabad grown rapidly, but it has expanded to a very large area from Murree in the north to Taxila on the other side, and one part of the city touches Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” Mr Naqvi said.

“More representation was needed to meet the public’s growing demands,” he added.

Although Mr Naqvi is a local and belongs to a prominent village in Islamabad, the capital’s current MNA from NA-48, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Asad Umar, has lived mostly in Karachi.

The political arena in NA-52 is set, with the native villages of key politicians such as the incumbent NA-49 representative Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, PTI’s Ilyas Meharban and PPP’s Mustafa Nawaz Khokar all in the same area.

In 2002, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari from the PPP, became the first MNA from NA-49, and was defeated in 2008 by Dr Chaudhry by a margin of 756 votes. Mr Khokar, contesting from the PML-Q’s platform, came in third.

The PML-N’s Dr Chaudhry defended his seat easily in the 2013 election, winning 94,106 votes. Mr Meharban from the PTI received 57,383 votes, while Mr Khokar – now from the PPP – secured 44,984.

The inclusion of Bhara Kahu, the native are of Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, in NA-53, will naturally protect the family from competition from the Khokars, who are also from the PPP.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2018