LAHORE, Aug 13: The Election Commission of Pakistan has placed every two provincial assembly constituencies under one returning officer appointed for the next general elections.

This decision, according to Punjab Election Commission officials, has been taken in view of shortage of judges in the subordinate judiciary available for appointment as returning officers (ROs) and assistant returning officers (AROs).

It was learnt by Dawn on Tuesday that the decision to appoint one RO for every two provincial constituencies was also based on 10 to 15 per cent increase in the total number of voters following the lowering down of the valid voting age from 21 to 18 years in May this year. Such an increase in the number of voters, as disclosed by the officials, had led to a proportionate increase in the number of polling stations in every constituency for which the ECP did not have enough backup of judicial officers qualifying to be appointed ROs and AROs.

Civil judges of Ist, 2nd and 3rd class had been appointed AROs who would be reporting to additional district and sessions judges appointed as ROs.

One National Assembly constituency would be administered by one RO. He would be assisted by an ARO. However, two AROs had been appointed for every two provincial constituencies reporting to the same RO. Some 13 additional district and sessions judges had been appointed ROs for 13 NA constituencies and 25 provincial constituencies in Lahore. Another 26 civil judges had been appointed AROs for 13 NA and 25 provincial constituencies. These ROs and AROs would receive and scrutinize the nomination papers of the candidates for the next elections following the announcement of the election schedule.

The following judges had been appointed ROs and AROs for 13 NA constituencies of Lahore:

NA-118 (Khalid Mahmood and Rana Muhammad Khan), NA-119 (Mian Mureed Hussain and Muhammad Dawood Sahi), NA-120 (Mustafa Tanveer Sufwat and Syed Khurshid Ahmad), NA-121 Shaukat Iqbal Ahmad and Safdar Iqbal), NA-122 (Mehr Muhammad Nawaz and Javed Iqbal Sheikh), NA-123 (Hassan Mabrur and Muhammad Zafar Iqbal), NA-124 (Chaudhry Sajid Mehmood Chatta and Haider Amin), NA-125 (Syed Maruf Ahmad Ali and Mansoor Ahmad Qureshi), NA-126 Zafar Hussain Bhatti and Javed Iqbal), NA-127 Arshad Mahmood Tabassum and Muhammad Azam), NA-128 (Sardar Ahmad Naeem and Naeem Abbas), NA-129 (Khalid Shabir and Ahmad Arshad), NA-130 (Muhammad Akram and Muhammad Saleem).

For the 26 PA constituencies of the city the following judges had been appointed ROs and AROs:

PP-137 and PP-138 (Khalid Mahmood, Syed Sajid Tirmizi and Rana Muhammad Khan), PP-139 and PP-140 (Mustafa Tanvir Sufwat, Muhammad Iqbal Mazhar and Syed Khurshid Ahmad), PP-141 and PP-142 (Mian Mureed Hussain, Muhammad Daud Sahi and Shabaz Iqbal Tarrar), PP-143 and PP-144 (Hassan Mabrur, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal Sial and Ishrat Ali Khan), PP-145 and PP-146 (Chaudhry Sajid Mahmood Chatta, Haider Amin and Tariq Zubair), PP-147 and PP-148 (Mehr Muhammad Nawaz, Riaz Ahmad Khan and Javed Iqbal Sheikh), PP- 149 and PP-150 (Shaukat Iqbal Ahmad, Safdar Iqbal and Mesum Mehdi), PP-151 and PP-152 (Zafar Hussain Bhatti, Shabraiz Akhtar Raja and Javed Iqbal), PP-153 and PP-154 (Arshad Mahmood Tabassum, Muhammad Azam and Muhammad Ajmal Raja), PP-155 and PP-156 (Syed Maruf Ahmad Ali, Mansoor Ahmad Qureshi and Khalid Ayyaz Ahmad), PP-157 and PP-158 (Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Saleem, Shehar Yar Bukhari Syed), PP-159 (Khalid Shabir and Ahmad Arshad Mehmood), PP-160 and PP-161 (Sardar Ahmad Naeem, Naeem Abbas and Farrukh Hussain).

In PP-150, one registration officer had been appointed owing to the adjustment of provincial constituencies in Lahore.