ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has set aside the delimitation of two constituencies of the National Assembly and asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to review its decision on the demarcation of NA-35 Kohat and NA-36 Hangu-cum-Orakzai.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq on Tuesday had reserved judgement on the petitions against the delimitation of both the constituencies. The decision was announced by the chief justice in the open court on Friday.

The counsel for petitioners argued that Section 20(3) allows for a maximum deviation of 5pc from the average size of a constituency; however, this principle has been abandoned by the ECP.

The average population of a KP National Assembly constituency is 907,913. Kohat (NA-35), with a population of 12 lacs and 34 thousand, was delimited in a way that it is 36pc bigger than the legally permissible limit. On the other hand, some districts such as Chitral and Mohmand have been delimited in a way that their population is around 5 to 6 lacs only.

The counsel claimed that this amounted to a violation of the one-man-one-vote principle. The worth of his vote has been reduced to less than half of that of people in other constituencies. The petitioners also proposed that Dara Adam Khel could conveniently be added to the adjacent Hangu-Orakzai constituency in order to make the population of both constituencies equal and close to the average.

The ECP contended that the population variance between different districts was inevitable because it was linked with the district boundaries. In response, the petitioners argued that the law, especially after the Elections (Second Amendment) Act, 2023, gave primacy to the one-man-one-vote principle. District boundaries can be broken where required for adhering to this principle.

The court accepted the petitions and set aside the ECP’s decision and directed it to carry out the delimitation of NA-35 and NA-36 afresh after hearing the relevant parties.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2023