The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Thursday moved a petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) challenging fresh delimitation of constituencies in various cities of Sindh. MQM-P leaders Kunwar Naveed Jameel, Amir Khan, and Wasim Akhtar jointly filed the petition, alleging that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) carried out fresh delimitation of constituencies in a way to favour its candidates in utter disregard for relevant laws. They stated that certain urban areas were merged into rural areas and vice versa. The MQM-P leaders, therefore, pleaded with the SHC to declare fresh delimitations void. Last month, the MQM-P had approached the Election Commission to stop the process of delimitation of local government constituencies in Sindh till the final publication of the results of the sixth population census held in 2017. Party convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui had written a letter to the ECP secretary stating that under Chapter III, Section 17(2) of the Election Act, 2017, the Commission shall delimit constituencies after every census officially published. He said the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics had published the provisional results of the census on Aug 25, 2017 and the Council of Common Interest has still not published the final results of the census.
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