ISLAMABAD:The Supreme Court on Tuesday while hearing a case regarding delimitation of constituencies of Jacobabad and Kashmore districts, summoned delimitation experts of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on next date of hearing.
A three-member SC bench comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Amin-Ud-Din Khan heard the case.
During the course of proceedings, Advocate Rafiq Kalor, counsel for petitioner Ahsan Mazari, said his client was a current Member of the National Assembly (MNA).
He said in terms of population ratio, the whole of Sindh was given 61 seats in the National Assembly. Jacobabad and Kashmore had three National Assembly seats, and each of them had different number of voters, he added.
He said the constituencies should be based on population ratio according to the Constitution and law. The delimitation should be carried while taking into account their population while at present the population was divided within the districts, he added.
He said there should be demarcations from the records of ‘Patwari.’
Justice Bandial said the District Returning Officers were appointed districts wise.
The counsel said one constituency of Bannu had 1.2 million voters while another one had 0.4 million voters. The district-based delimitation did not allow for accurate distribution of the population, he added.
The counsel for the ECP said different points were considered while delimitation of the constituencies.
Upon this, Justice Bandial remarked that the court wanted to hear experts on the matter.
The Supreme Court summoned the ECP’s delimitation experts and ordered early fixation of the case.