Daily Times

The restoration of Kurram Agency’s second National Assembly constituency has sent a wave of excitement among leaders of Pakistan People’s Party as well as tribal elders.

According to the political leaders and tribal elders, abolition of the constituency was an upsetting development for the people of the area as Kurram Agency already had only two constituencies.

Delimitation of constituencies was undertaken by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) across country following the population census that was carried out in 2017. Consequently, some areas were further divided into more constituencies while the count was reduced in others through mergers.

According to Senator Sajid Hussain Turi and MNA Malik Ibrar Jan, the ECP had stated that Kurram Agency was short of 11,000 people to be divided into two constituencies hence both were merged. However, tribal elders and political leaders filed an appeal with the ECP stating that people belonging to the Kurram Agency were undercounted as internally displaced persons (IDP) from the agency were not taken into account. They argued that there were over 50,000 IDPs belonging to the Kurram Agency who could exercise their right of vote despite being away from home, therefore their area should not be deprived of a constituency. Subsequently, the ECP announced to restore the constituency in the agency during a hearing on objections over the delimitation.

ECP’s move was lauded by former air marshal Sayed Qaiser Shah, former DIG Syed Irshad Hussain and tribal elders Dr Mujahid Hussain and Syed Iqbal Mian, all of whom struggled to get back the constituency. They were of the view that better solution to issues faced by the public would be possible only after the restoration of the constituency.

Published in Daily Times, April 30^th 2018.