ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: In an apparent attempt to avert a possible backlash, the Election Commission has invited over a dozen political parties for consultations on how to go about delimitation of constituencies in Karachi.

Some Karachi-based parties are among the invitees to the consultative session scheduled for Dec 20. According to the ECP, letters have been written to the political parties asking them to nominate not more than two representatives for the meeting.

The letter refers to the Supreme Court’s Oct 6, 2011 judgment in the Watan Party case and relevant part of the court’s Nov 28, 2012 order on delimitation of constituencies.

A senior ECP official told Dawn that neither Article 51 (5) of the Constitution nor section 7 (2) of the Delimitation of Constituencies Act was a hurdle in the way of delimitation of Karachi in accordance with the apex court’s judgment.

RE-VERIFICATION: The ECP plans to start the process for re-conduct of verification of voters in Karachi in the last week of this month.

Letters have been sent to Defence Secretary Asif Yasin Malik and Interior Secretary Siddique Akbar for the provision of services of the army and Frontier Constabulary during the door-to-door verification campaign.