ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs met under the chairpersonship of MNA Dr. Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal here on Wednesday, to discuss the proposed agenda.
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs briefed the Committee regarding the comprehensive report/implementation status of the previous recommendations of the Committee. He informed that Ministry has compliance on the directions of the Committee and also sent letters to the concerned department for implementation on the direction of the Committee. Additional Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) briefed the Committee regarding the delimitation process, delimitation in terms of existing law and progress of delimitation of constituencies for the General Election, 2018.
He informed that delimitation law can have two dimensions one of them is laws of enfranchisement as to population total number of representatives to be elected and the other is to actual drawing of boundaries and enclosing people with the constituency. He further informed that the seats in the National Assembly shall be allocated to each province and the Federal Capital on the basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census.
The Additional Secretary ECP also informed the Committee about the allocation of seats to the provinces before and after the 24th amendment. He added that total number of seats in the National Assembly before the 24th amendment was 43 for KPK and increased to 48 after the amendment, 183 for Punjab decreased to 174 after the amendment, 75 for Sindh remains unchanged after the amendment, 17 for Balochistan increased to 20 after the amendment, 12 for FATA remains unchanged after the amendment and 02 for ICT increased to 03 after the amendment.
He informed the Committee that ECP has constituted a Delimitation Committee for each province with Provincial Election Commissioner as the Convener and a separate delimitation Committee has been constituted for ICT and Tribal Areas which shall prepare draft proposals for delimitation of constituencies of National Assembly from these areas. The Committee was shortly briefed about the timeline of delimitation, determination of quota and quota per seats in the National Assembly. Sardar Ashiq Hussain Gopang, Sheikh Muhammad Akram, Mian Tariq Mehmood, Mr. Azhar Qayyum Nahra, Mr. Rasheed Ahmad Khan, Mr. Nadeem Abbas Rabaira, Ch. Salman Haneef Khan, Ms. Belum Hasnain, Ms. Shahida Rehmani, Dr. Shazia Sobia and Ms. Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak and Syed Essa Nori MNAs attended the meeting.
Published in Daily Times, January 4th 2018.
