LAHORE: In view of the local elections to be held across Punjab in the near future, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a schedule for delimitation of wards within four Cantonment boards of the province.
These are Bahawalpur, Kamra, Taxila and Shorkot Cantonment boards.
After the 2017 census, the proportion of population changed in various areas and regions creating the need for new delimitations.
The Election Commission constituted four committees comprising the District Election Commissioner, Cantonment Executive Officer and Assistant Commissioner of the respective district of the Cantonment boards to carry out the demarcation process in the light of the instructions and rules of the ECP.
According to the schedule issued by the Commission, the delimitation committees will complete all administrative matters related to delimitation by Jan 8 (Friday). A preliminary list of delimitations will be prepared from Jan 11 to 18 and the list will be published on Jan 19.
From Jan 20 to Feb 3, voters of the area concerned can submit their objections to the proposed demarcation with the delimitation authorities appointed by the Election Commission. These authorities will settle the objections by Feb 18 and the final list of the constituencies will be published on Feb 26.
The ECP has appointed four delimitation authorities consisting of regional election commissioners of the respective divisions of the Cantonment boards for hearing the objections.
Meanwhile, the returning officer for by-polls in NA-75, Sialkot, has accepted all 16 nominations. Of them, Nasir Cheema, Rauf Bajwa, Ali Asjid Malhi, Hasan Ijaz Cheema, Usman Khalid and Khwaja Atif Raza belong to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, while Nausheen Iftikhar, Shamsa Saleem Bukhari, Syed Shah Faisal and Muhammad Asif are from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
Ali Raza, Tariq Maqsood and Khalil Sindhu belong to the Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan, whereas Sumaira Islam and Haider Jafri have submitted nominations as independent candidates.
For Punjab Assembly’s constituency PP-51, Gujranwala, 22 candidates had submitted their nominations. Papers of independent aspirant Shahid Raza have been rejected.
Of them, Muhammad Yousaf and Omar Yousaf are claiming to have support of the PTI, Khalid Manzoor Cheema, Babar Alauddin Farooqi, Talaat Mahmood, Imtiaz Azhar, Babar Imtiaz, Waqar Cheema, Hassam Waqar Cheema, Mustansar Gondal, Wahaj Shaukat and Amer Zaman of the PML-N, Nasir Mahmood of the TLP and Mushtaq Butt of the Jamaat-i-Islami.
The ECP has appointed Justice Ali Baqar Najfi of the Lahore High Court as appellate tribunal to decide appeals, if any, against acceptance or rejection of the nominations for both the seats by Jan 18.
The candidates may withdraw their papers on Jan 20, election symbols will be allotted to the contestants on Jan 21, while the polling will be held on Feb 19.
Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2021