ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s two leading political parties have rejected the timeline for redrawing of national and provincial constituencies announced by the country’s election regulator this week, with one of them vowing to challenge the results of the latest census requiring delimitation in the apex court.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued a notification on Thursday outlining its plan to finalize the new constituencies by December 14, effectively indicating that the upcoming general elections in the country will not take place within the constitutional 90-day period after the dissolution of the assemblies.
Pakistan’s national and two provincial assemblies were dissolved last week shortly before the expiration of their five-year term. This was followed by the appointment of a caretaker setup in the country to ensure free, fair and transparent elections within the constitutionally stipulated period.
“The schedule of [delimitation of] constituencies issued by the Election Commission is malicious and a clear deviation from the constitution,” the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, the main opposition faction led by jailed former premier Imran Khan, said in a statement.
The PTI, which has been advocating for early elections since Khan’s removal from office in April 2022, asserted the ECP’s decision to announce the polling schedule after December 14 constituted a “criminal attempt to prolong the tenure of the caretaker government” and contravened constitutional stipulations.
It said it would challenge the decision of the Council of Common Interests’ (CCI) — a constitutional entity responsible for approving census results — in the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Saturday, August 19.
The party emphasized that the establishment of new constituencies could not serve as a pretext for Khan’s political rivals to evade their electoral obligations.
“[The PTI] will resist the conspiracies being hatched to deprive people of their right to vote according to the constitution,” it said.
Earlier, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which was also part of former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition administration, also opposed the ECP’s decision on Thursday, saying there was “no constitutional requirement” for redrawing new constituencies.
“PPP has been demanding elections to be held as per the constitution,” the party’s central secretary information, Faisal Karim Kundi, wrote on the X platform. “There is no constitutional requirement to do delimitations but there is a constitutional requirement to hold elections within 90 days.”
Previously, Khan’s PTI party wrote a letter to the country’s Caretaker PM Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, urging for elections within the 90-day timeframe following the assembly’s dissolution.
Khan, 70, has been barred from assuming any public office for a duration of five years. This ruling was imposed after he commenced a three-year prison sentence earlier this month for illegally selling state gifts received during his tenure from 2018 to 2022.
Independent analysts have raised concerns about the credibility of the impending elections due to Khan’s continued incarceration, given his status as arguably the nation’s most prominent political figure.