KP requests Pakistan’s poll body to delay elections in newly-merged tribal districts

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Home and Tribal Affairs Department sent a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) last week, requesting to postpone polls in 16 new constituencies of the tribal districts of the province due to security and administrative reasons.
“Election is a breathing life for democratic nations and the people of the newly-merged districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are availing this opportunity for the first time in the constitutional history of Pakistan,” the letter, dated June 3, 2019, said.
It added that the polls, which were originally scheduled to be held on July 2, should be postponed due to “unwarranted situation and threats of serious nature from across the border.”
“Some developments within the newly-merged districts may sabotage the whole process of holding the forthcoming elections,” it read.
There was an unusual increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s tribal districts, particularly in North Waziristan, with the ISPR, the military’s media wing, saying in a statement that “at least 10 soldiers have been killed and 35 wounded over the past month” in the area.
With that in mind, the KP government has requested for a delay in the polls by 20 days “which is within the constitutional limit of 25th of July, 2019 for holding the subject elections.”
In May last year, the National Assembly (NA) – through a constitutional amendment bill – had allowed the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with the KP province. The new law had approved an increase in the number of NA seats from six to 12 for the tribal districts and from 16 to 24 for the KP assembly seats.