ISLAMABAD: The poll monitor released final list of national and provincial assembly constituencies, removing a significant legal obstacle to the upcoming general elections and reducing the number of National Assembly seats from the current 342 to 336.
The former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) are combined with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province under the 25th Amendment. The amendment eliminated the 12 Fata NA seats and gave KP six seats based on population. As a result, there are now 266 instead of 272 universal seats in the second chamber of parliament.
The adjustment will now take effect thanks to the new delimitation.
The number of seats for women and minorities will remain at 60 & 10, respectively. The PPP criticised the exercise conducted on the basis of a “flawed” census after the ECP published final separation lists for 266 national & 593 provincial assembly constituencies.
Senator Taj Haider, who is in charge of the party’s Central Election Cell, stated that delimitation cannot be done using “faulty and contentious demographic numbers.”
He said that the Council of Common Interests (CCI) had acknowledged that the Census 2017 results were inaccurate and, despite Sindh’s vote against it, had ordered a new census that was to be completed before December 31, 2022, while confirming the provisional results.
