ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Thursday passed an all-important Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2017, that would pave the way for fresh delimitation of constituencies in accordance with provisional results of the recently concluded population census.
The bill was passed with a two-thirds majority vote, as all political parties voted in favour of the amendment, except MNA Jamshed Dasti because he had reservations over the census results. Dasti said he would move the courts against the bill. A total of 242 votes were cast in favour of the amendment that required 228 nods for a two-thirds majority in the Lower House of parliament of 342 seats.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had been directed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief and former premier Nawaz Sharif to cajole mainstream political parties into approving the constitutional amendment bill on delimitation of constituencies earlier this month.
He was tasked to ensure full attendance of the PML-N and ‘likeminded’ lawmakers during the NA session in a bid to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority.
Nawaz was concerned over the opposition shown by political parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in particular, regarding legislation on delimitation of constituencies in the light of Population Census 2017.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) gave the government the deadline of November 10 to provide legal cover for the election authorities to go ahead with carrying out delimitations on the provisional results of the headcount. The poll supervisory authority had warned that failure to do so would result in delay in holding the general election.
Published in Daily Times, November 17th 2017.
