ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) published the list of Preliminary Delimitation of Constituencies 2023, according to which, the strength of the Lower House of the Parliament – National Assembly – has decreased by six seats to 336.
In the fresh delimitation, the ECP has reduced the representation of newly-merged districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) from 12 to six under the 2023 Population Census.
The list of new Constituencies shows that there would be 266 general seats in the National Assembly as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s strength comes down to 45 from 51 in 2018.
In 2018, the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) was merged with KP under the 25th Constitutional Amendment and initially 12 National Assembly seats were allocated to the newly merged districts which had now reduced to six.
Click Here to Download ECP Preliminary Delimitation 2023 Report
The ECP preliminary report said that the seat allocation to the other provinces would remain intact. Accordingly, Punjab will have 141 National Assembly seats; Sindh 51, Balochistan 16. and Islamabad three.
Similarly, the ECP also released the details of Provincial Assembly Constituencies, according to which, the total number of seats in the Punjab Assembly was 297; Sindh Assembly 130; KP Assembly 115, and Balochistan Assembly 51.
On average, the ECP said, each National Assembly Constituency in KP would consist of a population of 907,000; the FCederal Capital 787,000; Punjab 905,595; Sindh 913,000 and Balochistan 930,000.
Each Provincial Assembly Constituency of KP would consist of a population of 355,000; Punjab 429,000. and Sindh 428,000.
The ECP said that 10 districts of KP could not get the required population strength to get one National Assembly seat.
Similarly, population was taken from Rawalpindi for a National Assembly seat for Murree.
Punjab
According to the report, Gujranwala and Hafizabad districts together have six seats. Two National Assembly seats in Jhelum, 10 in Faisalabad, 14 in Lahore and six each in Multan and Rahimyar Khan district remain unchanged.
The Rawalpindi district and Murree together have 7 seats. Two seats have been retained by combining Chakwal and Talagang while four seats of Muzaffargarh, five seats of Bahawalpur and two seats of Lodhran are retained.
KP
A National Assembly Constituency has been created by combining Chitral Upper and Chitral Lower.
Kohistan Upper, Lower and Kolai Palash are combined for one seat; Mansehra and Targhar have been merged into one seat.
Similarly, Hangu and Orakzai are combined into one constituency; Tank and Dera Ismail Khan combined have three seats; while South Waziristan and North Waziristan have been merged into one seat.
Sindh
In the new delimitation, there is a change in the National Assembly Constituencies from Sindh. Accordingly, Jacobabad, Kashmore and Shikarpur districts have been divided into four National Assembly seats.
Sanghar lost one National Assembly seat, reducing the number of seats from the district to two. The seat had been allocated to Karachi South district whose strength has increased from two to three. Also, Karachi’s seats increase to 22 from previous 21.
In the new delimitation, there has been a change in the Provincial Assembly Constituencies also. One seat each of Khairpur, Sanghar and Thatta districts has been decreased. As a result, Khairpur’s Provincial Assembly seats are reduced from seven to six; Sanghar from six to five, and Thatta from three to two.
On the other hand, one seat each has been increased in Malir, East and Central districts of Karachi. Malir’s seats rise from five to six; Karachi East from eight to nine and Karachi Central from eight to nine.
Source: DND & The Express Tribune
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