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In statement, electoral body says it has been reminding government of need to notify census since 2020
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday responded to criticisms of former federal ministers regarding media reports over issues concerning the conduct of early elections, noting it had been urging the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government for nearly two years to notify the census required to complete delimitation.
On Sunday, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri dismissed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan by invoking Article 5 (loyalty to the state) of the Constitution. Within minutes, P.M. Khan “advised” President Arif Alvi to dissolve the National Assembly, who assented within hours. The legality of the deputy speaker’s ruling is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
Earlier this week, media reports quoting senior ECP officials claimed that the electoral body would be unable to conduct general elections within three months due to legal and operational constraints. This was followed by Alvi writing to the ECP and directing it to propose dates for holding general elections under Article 224(2) of the Constitution. Former ministers Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Shireen Mazari, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain and Farrukh Habib have all condemned the ECP over the media reports, claiming it must fulfill its responsibility to conduct elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the Lower House of Parliament.
Dismissing the criticism, the ECP said it had been meeting all its constitutional obligations and had the capability to conduct general elections as per the law and Constitution. However, it said, this was only possible if all other institutions also fulfilled their legal and constitutional obligations in a timely manner.
Noting that the number of National Assembly constituencies had reduced from 272 to 266 after the merger of the erstwhile tribal areas into Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, the ECP statement noted that this warranted fresh delimitation, which was not legally possible without official census results. It said the chief election commissioner had written a letter to Imran Khan on May 7, 2020 apprising him of the issue and urging him to get the official census results notified so the delimitation exercise could commence.
According to the ECP, letters had also been written to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, the Ministry of Law, as well as the secretaries of the Senate, National Assembly and the Bureau of Statistics. These were followed up with reminders that the ECP could not fulfill its constitutional responsibility to delimitate constituencies until the final census results had been notified, it added.
The process of delimitation, per the ECP, started after the official census results were notified on May 7, 2021. However, it said, this was halted after the PTI-led government announced that it would go for a fresh digital census. The statement noted that the ECP had also written letters to the government on Dec. 30, 2021 and Jan. 21, 2022, urging it to expedite the census process. The government had, in February, announced that it would conduct the digital census in August 2022, which would take place after general elections in line with the schedule desired by President Alvi.
Advising PTI leaders to refrain from levelling unnecessary allegations against it, the ECP reiterated that it was ready and willing to perform its job of conducting the general elections.