ISLAMABAD – The National Assembly on Friday witnessed presentation of theElections (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019, aimed at delimitation of generalseats of newly allocated Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa forerstwhile FATA.The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan laidthe Ordinance in the House which sought amendment in Section 20 of theElection Act, 2017.
It asks for inserting new sub-section after sub-section (2) in section 20.
The new section namely 2(A) will be as follows: “ For the purpose ofdelimitingconstituencies, for the general seats of Provincial Assembly of KhyberPakhtunkhwa for Tribal Areas two more separate areas may be grouped intoone constituency for their elections to be held in 2019 and bye-electionsrelatedthereto and thereafter this sub-section shall stand omitted”.According to Statement of Objects and Reasons, “Pursuant to 25thConstitutional Amendment, the Election Commission is obliged to conductelections on 16 general seats of erstwhile FATA including FR Regions forthe Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before July 25, 2019.
The Election Commission of Pakistan is facing great difficulty indelimitingthe six ex-Frontier Regions, which have been annexed by the ProvincialGovernment with other adjoining districts.Section 20 (2) of the Election Act, 2017 provides that the ElectionCommission may while delimiting constituencies for the general seatsin the National Assembly for the Tribal Areas, group two or more separateareas into one constituency.
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In order to avert disenfranchisement of ex-Tribal areas including itsnon-contiguous Frontier Regions, the Commission suggested to insertidentical provision for delimitation of general seats of newly allocatedProvincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for erstwhile FATA”.