Islamabad (November 20, 2017): Senate is likely to take up the bill on delimitation of constituencies today after it failed to do so on Friday due to lower strength than required.
The house of 104 needed a two-thirds majority to pass the bill whereas less than 50 lawmakers were present in the house on Friday.
The Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2017 pertains to the fresh delimitation of constituencies in line with the provisional results of the latest census in light of the general elections next year.
The upper house, however, managed to pass the same day the Elections Amendment Bill, 2017, related to Khatam-e-Nabuwat clauses for voters, after the National Assembly (NA) did the same on Thursday.
Earlier, NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had said after chairing a meeting of parliamentary parties that the total NA seats will remain 272 but there would be a change in the allocation of NA seats for the provinces.
According to the new delimitation, Punjab’s seat share in the National Assembly will decrease by nine seats, while Islamabad will get one more seat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa five and Balochistan three more.
NA seats for FATA and Sindh will remain unchanged.
Earlier, on November 16, National Assembly passed the crucial Constitutional Amendment Bill 2017 on Thursday aimed new delimitation of constituencies ahead of the upcoming general elections on the basis of provisional results of the population census.
All political parties voted in favour of the amendment with the exception of MNA Jamshed Dasti, who said that he had reservations over the recent census and announced to approach the courts against the constitutional amendment.
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The parliamentarians cast 242 votes in favour of the amendment, which required 228 to pass with a two-thirds majority in the house of 342.
According to the latest amendment, while the number of NA seats will remain the same, Punjab will lose out on seats as its proportion in Pakistan’s population has fallen to 52pc in 2017 from 56pc in 1998.
Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will gain the seats lost by Punjab while Sindh’s share will remain the same.
On November 13, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved delimitation of new constituencies on the basis of provisional results of Population Census 2017, paving a way for timely conduct of next general elections.
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