ECP issues initial delimitation for national, provincial assemblies

ISLAMABAD: The Election of Pakistan (ECP) issued the initial delimitation of national and provincial assemblies on Monday on the basis of the population census carried out late last year. 

The initial delimitation issued by ECP has maintained 272 general seats in the national assembly, with Sindh's general seats remaining unchanged at 61 and FATA's at 12.

However, the ECP reduced the number of general seats in Punjab by seven to 141 and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's by four. Balochistan's general seats were also reduced by two while Islamabad saw an increase of a seat. 

Punjab would now have 141 general seats, Sindh 61, KP will have 39, Balochistan 16, FATA 12 and Islamabad will have 3. 

Numbers allocated to constituencies have also changed after the issuance of the initial delimitation list. The sequence will now move in a clockwise fashion. Peshawar is no longer NA-1, and the number has been allocated to Chitral. 

Constituencies in Peshawar will now begin from NA-27, while NA-48 and NA-49, previously allocated to Islamabad, will now fall in Waziristan. 

Islamabad's seats will now be numbered 52, 53, 54. Constituencies in Punjab, which previously started from Rawalpindi, will now start from Attock, which will be NA-55. 

Seats in Lahore will now be numbered from 123 to 136. The last constituency in Punjab will now be NA-195 Rajanpur. 

In Sindh, constituncies will now start from NA0-196 Jacobabad. Karachi's 21 seats will not start from NA-236 to NA-256, which will also be the province's last constituency. 

The first seat in Balochistan will be NA-257 Killa Saifulla and the last will be NA-272 Gwadar. 

There would be no change in the provincial assemblies after the new delimitation notification. 

According to the ECP, any reservations can be brought to the commission in the next 30 days till April 3, 2018.