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The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday notified its final list of delimitations of constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies, setting the stage for the announcement of a schedule for the polls due on Feb. 8, 2024.
According to the notification, the National Assembly would consist of 266 general seats; 60 reserved seats for women; and 10 seats reserved for non-Muslims. Of these, Balochistan has 16 general and four reserved seats for women; Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has 45 general and 10 reserved seats for women; Sindh has 61 general and 14 reserved seats for women; and Punjab has 141 general seats and 32 seats reserved for women. Additionally, Islamabad has 3 general seats in the National Assembly.
In the provincial assemblies, Balochistan has 65 seats—51 general, 11 reserved for women, and three reserved seats for non-Muslims. KP has 145 seats, comprising 115 general, 26 women’s, and 4 non-Muslim reserved seats. As the most populous province, Punjab has 297 general seats, 66 reserved seats for women, and 8 reserved seats for non-Muslims, totaling 371 seats. Sindh, meanwhile, has 168 total seats comprising 130 general, 29 reserved seats for women, and 9 seats for non-Muslims.
The total number of seats in all four provinces are 749, including 593 general seats, 132 reserved seats for women and 24 reserved seats for non-Muslims.
Detailing the process of delimitation, the ECP notification stated that each province was divided into as many separate territorial constituencies as the number of general seats allocated to that province under Article 51 of the Constitution. Islamabad, it said, was divided into as many separate territorial constituencies as the number of general seats allocated under Article 51. For women’s seats in the National Assembly, a province is treated as a single constituency for all seats reserved for women allocated to that province in Article 51. Meanwhile, for seats reserved for non-Muslims in the National Assembly, the whole country is considered a constituency for all seats.
General seats of the provincial assemblies, meanwhile, are determined by dividing each province into as many separate territorial constituencies as the number of general seats specified for each province in Article 106. With respect to seats of women and non-Muslims in the provincial assemblies, each province forms one constituency with as many such seats as are allocated to each province in the district.
According to the ECP, 1,327 representations were filed against its preliminary delimitations, including 675 from Punjab and 293 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.