Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) petition against the delimitation of constituencies by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) till date in office. A three-member SC bench comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Jamal Khan heard the case filed by PTI secretary general Asad Umar. The petition sought a declaration that the delimitation schedule announced by the electoral watchdog was illegal and unconstitutional. It prayed that the endeavour by the ECP to carry out new delimitations of provincial and national constituencies across the country and the subsequent schedule it issued amounted to a departure from Article 51(5), which provides that seats in the National Assembly should be allocated to each province on the basis of population in accordance with the last census officially published. During the course of proceedings, Justice Mazahar asked PTI counsel Faisal Ch why did he file the amended petition in the miscellaneous petition, “Mr. Faisal Chaudhry, this showed your lack of seriousness,” he added. Addressing the counsel, Justice Ijaz said that it was an important matter and advised him to take it seriously. The bench also directed Faisal Ch to submit copy of 25th Constitutional Amendment. The counsel argued that the delimitation notification did not have constitutional protection. The delimitation for constituency was based on the provisional results of the census for the general election 2018, he added. PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry could not submit the notification of Election Commission on constituencies. Addressing the counsel, Justice Ijaz said that according to his petition the delimitation of the whole country except Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) and Provincial Administrative Tribal Areas (PATA) were unwarranted. He asked where was the notification of new delimitation of constituencies issued by the Election Commission. The counsel responded that the new delimitation schedule of the Election Commission had been posted in the paper book. Upon this, Justice Ijaz remarked that the schedule was issued only after a legal notification. Only the Election Commission could better explain about notification for the delimitation of constituencies, the counsel replied. He pleaded the court to issue notice to the ECP in this regard. Justice Ijaz said that the notices could not be issued to the Election Commission without notification.