Cover Story 
 

Cover Story

Elections or No Elections?

There is no indication of the political parties gearing up for the hustings yet. The usual electioneering that should have started by now, with just weeks left for the dissolution of the National Assembly, is all quite inexplicable. So, what is cooking in the corridors of power?

By Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad | August 2023


Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared that his government’s term would end on August 14. He, however, did not clear the confusion about whether the PDM government would go for normal dissolution of the National Assembly on completion of its term on August 12 or he would advise the President for early dissolution. The assembly would formally stand dissolved on August 13, and there is no provision in the Constitution, except the imposition of emergency in the country under Article 232 to extend the term of the National Assembly.

According to Article 224 of the Constitution, a General Election to the National Assembly or a Provincial Assembly shall be held within a period of 60 days immediately following the day on which the term of the assembly is due to expire unless the assembly has been dissolved earlier, in case of early dissolution, the Election Commission of Pakistan is bound to hold the General Elections within a period of 90 days after the dissolution, according to Article 224.2.

The provincial assembly of Sindh and Balochistan also held their first session on August 13, 2018, so the term of these provincial assemblies will also end with the National Assembly.

The government also has a plan to make amendments to the election laws, and a bill in this regard is expected to be tabled during the farewell session of the assembly, which will be held soon. The draft of the proposed law is presently under consideration by the Special Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms, headed by former speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq. The Committee is expected to finalise the draft suggesting key changes to the election laws around the end of July. It is presumed as many as 67 proposed amendments are in the election act.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), traditionally and as per its mandate as per Articles 218 and 224, is obliged to conduct elections in a free environment, and the electoral process will be transparent. The Election Commission of Pakistan has worked diligently to establish a comprehensive Code of Conduct for all stakeholders. Appointments of 750 returning officers for national and provincial assemblies have been completed in all respect, and the polling staff, which are more than one million, are being scrutinised.

With the results of the digital census yet to be formally notified, conducting the forthcoming general elections based on the latest delimitation is out of the question. The General Elections 2023 for the national and provincial assemblies will be conducted as per the limits of the constituencies published by the Election Commission of Pakistan on August 5, 2022, under Article 51.5 of the Constitution and Section 17 of the Elections Act 2017, the final published data is required for delimitation of constituencies, and the Election Commission of Pakistan is bound to start the delimitation process once the census is officially published.


Seats in the National Assembly are allocated to each province and federal territory based on the population according to the last preceding officially published census under Article 51.5 of the Constitution. Therefore, a constitutional amendment would be required following the official publication of census results, which is technically not possible after acceptance of the resignations of the PTI lawmakers. The fresh delimitation exercise, which takes around four to six months, would make it impossible to conduct the General Elections due before October 12 this year.

The belated exercise of a fresh census with General Elections just around the corner makes it practically impossible for the Election Commission of Pakistan to carry out fresh delimitation for the forthcoming General Elections. The Election Commission of Pakistan will have no option but to hold forthcoming General Elections based on the existing delimitation. The Election Commission of Pakistan has been asking the government to publish the official results of the seventh population and housing census by December 31, 2022. Once the census is published, the ECP will require more than four months to carry out a fresh delimitation exercise.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has invited political parties to submit applications for the allocation of poll symbols ahead of general elections expected to be held this year.

Similarly, the revision of electoral rolls would also be required due to any increase or decrease in the number of census block codes and changes in the boundaries of blocks in different districts.

The sixth national census was held in the country between March and May 2017, following the 24th Constitutional Amendment in Article 51 in December 2017, the delimitation of constituencies for the 2018 General Elections was carried out based on provisional results of the 2017 census as a one-time dispensation. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics published the final results of the population census on May 6, 2021.

Under the Constitution, the Election Commission of Pakistan must carry out fresh delimitation of all the constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies before the next General Elections. Provincial governments and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics have been asked to supply requisite maps and data. I am of the opinion that the ECP successfully completed the delimitation process after adopting all legal measures enshrined in the Elections Act and the Rules 2017 and published the final delimitation of constituencies on August 5, 2022.

There is no indication of the political parties gearing up for the hustings yet. The usual electioneering that should have started by now, with just weeks left for the dissolution of the National Assembly, is all quite inexplicable. So, what is cooking in the corridors of power? The indication is intriguing and intensifies the country’s political uncertainty.

The meeting between PML-N and PPP bigwigs in the UEA reportedly resulted in a consensus on several issues, including names for the caretaker setup in the federal and two provinces, as the present National Assembly will complete its terms on August 14. On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan has invited political parties to submit applications for the allocation of poll symbols ahead of general elections expected to be held this year. The political parties have been advised to file applications for symbols according to the requirements of section 216 of the Election Act 2017.

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