The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday set aside the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) delimitation of four districts after finding that they had been done in violation of the law.

Handing down a decision on over 40 petitions, the IHC has now asked the ECP to conduct the delimitation of four districts — Jhang, Jhelum, Toba Tek Singh and Lower Dir — anew in accordance with the law and in consultation with stakeholders.

The petitioners had argued that standard procedures had not been followed in the delimitation of the constituencies.

Furthermore, the IHC has reserved its decision regarding Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Chakwal, and Batgram.

Read: Delimitation & identity politics

Justice Aamir Farooq ruled that the rules for proportion of population that have been followed in the delimitation of other constituencies should be kept in view while delimiting constituencies in these four districts as well.

The ECP's delimitations have faced severe criticism from political circles. A committee of the National Assembly had previously expressed its displeasure at the non-transparency of the exercise, while a total of 108 petitions were filed with the IHC alone against the delimitation exercise, many of which remain pending.

According to the procedure, the ECP follows a set formula for the number of provincial and NA seats a district is allotted. However, the final mapping within the districts remains largely opaque and open to controversy.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the IHC had rendered delimitation of eight districts void. However, it later came to light that IHC had set aside delimitation of only four districts while reserving its verdict on the remaining constituencies under question. The error is regretted. The new version of the story can be accessed here.