ISLAMABAD: After the Pakistan Peoples Party’s assertion that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is the appropriate forum for filing objections against delimitation, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Tuesday provided this reason for boycotting a meeting of the National Assembly’s special committee on delimitation of constituencies scheduled for Wednesday (today).

The PTI representative will not attend the meeting citing that the NA committee has no legal role in overseeing ECP functions and complaining against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) attitude towards institutions.

The special committee, headed by National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, will examine recommendations of its working group that had stirred a controversy after its convener and federal minister Daniyal Aziz during a press conference hinted at a proposal to arrest the members of the ECP delimitation committee for investigations into ‘dubious objectives’ of the ‘flawed delimitation exercise’.

Says panel has no legal role in overseeing ECP functions

The controversial report of its working group also recommended an amendment to the Constitution to pave the way for holding general elections on the basis of the existing demarcation of constituencies.

PTI lawmaker Dr Arif Alvi, who represents his party in the panel, confirmed to Dawn that he would not attend the meeting of the special committee on Wednesday because parliament had no legal role in overseeing the functions mandated under the Constitution to the ECP.

He also regretted that the attitude of the ruling PML-N towards institutions was inappropriate. In this regard, he referred to the proposal of working group’s convener for formation of an “inquiry commission to probe the objectives of what Daniyal Aziz called flawed delimitation and the idea of arrest and trial of delimitation officers”.

Dr Alvi also mentioned the “open threat” given by PML-N leader retired captain Safdar for the trial of judges under Article 6 of the Constitution. “We, too, have reservations over the delimitation, but we have challenged the decision at an appropriate forum as per law,” he remarked.

The PPP had earlier expressed reservations over the statement of the convener of the working group on delimitation and asserted that the ECP was the appropriate forum for raising objections against the delimitation exercise.

The PTI lawmaker alleged that it seemed that the ECP in as many as 92 constituencies had violated Section 20 (3) of the Elections Act that stated “as far as possible, variation in population of constituencies of an assembly or a local government shall not ordinarily exceed 10 per cent”. He said another objection of the party was that all objections against the delimitation should have been filed in districts. If for some reasons it was not possible at the district level, then the complainants should be allowed to file the objections at the provincial level. However, he added, currently people from far-flung areas had to come all the way to Islamabad to raise an objection against the delimitation.

The controversy over the working group convener’s stance emerged last month when after chairing its meeting Daniyal Aziz told a press conference that the group wanted a federal inquiry commission to probe ‘dubious objectives’ of ‘flawed delimitation exercise’.

According to Mr Aziz, the panel questioned the way in which the constituencies had been significantly altered and smelled a rat in the exercise. He said it was suggested that the commission “arrest members of the delimitation committee for investigations”.

He said the working group also recommended that the Supreme Court be approached against delimitation and their recommendations be adopted by the National Assembly by passing a resolution to amend Section 20 of the Elections Act, 2017, which articulates principles of delimitation, to make it more comprehensive, leaving no room for the Election Commission of Pakistan to decide from where delimitation of a constituency had to start.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the ECP, when contacted, expressed the hope that sanity would prevail and the delimitation panel would not take any step that made the entire delimitation exercise controversial at this stage when the disposal of objections was nearing conclusion.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2018