ISLAMABAD: After former ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), another major political entity, the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) on Sunday demanded that elections should be held on the basis of the latest population census results, accepting that redrawing hundreds of constituencies would delay polls by “a few” weeks or months.
Pakistan’s election dispute deepened after the outgoing government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved the results of the latest population census a few days before he dissolved the National Assembly. According to Pakistan’s constitution, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is bound to redraw hundreds of provincial and federal constituencies based on the new census results, an exercise the election regulator says would be completed by December 14. This means polls could be delayed to February 2024 and beyond.
While the PML-N has accepted the ECP’s decision and the likely delay in polls, former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), two major Pakistani political parties, have criticized the ECP and called for early elections.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference, MQM-P Convener Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi said “fake representatives” were imposed in Karachi, Hyderabad, and other urban cities of Sindh in the past due to botched census results.
“Let us reiterate: we want elections as soon as possible,” Siddiqi said. “But we want free, fair, and transparent elections, and if the difference between fair and unfair elections is that of a few weeks or months, then this is not a deal in which we would suffer a loss.”
Siddiqi said the new population census results include millions of new registered voters, vowing not to deprive them of their right to take to the ballot box on election day.
He wondered why some political entities were stressing holding polls on the results of the old population census.
“Who are these people who are emphasizing [holding elections in] old constituencies instead of new constituencies when a fresh population census has already been held,” he asked.
Pakistan’s election regulator has started consultations with major political parties on the roadmap ahead for free, fair, and transparent polls.
Meanwhile, independent experts warn a delay in holding elections will deal further blows to Pakistan’s already fragile economy. The Pakistani rupee has lost its value by more than Rs13 against the greenback since August 14 when Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar took oath to the country’s top political office.
Pakistan’s outgoing parliament granted additional powers to the interim government to take important decisions about “existing bilateral, multilateral and ongoing projects” signed with international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. However, they can neither legislate nor introduce any effective economic reforms in absence of a legislature to fix the economy.
