ISLAMABAD  -  As the Election Commission of Pakistan [ECP] has clearly hinted at delay in the general elections in the country, the political parties especially MQM-P will start compiling their reservations over the de­limitation of constituencies soon.

Some of the political parties, even before the announcement of the electoral watchdog, were much concerned about the delimitation of con­stituencies. With the start of the delimitation process, sources said, the political parties hav­ing concerns about the delimitation in their dis­tricts will also start compiling their appeals to submit in the ECP.

The top election body has reached a conclusion to conduct the fresh delimitation of the constit­uencies which is not possible within the stipu­lated timeframe of 90 days, as mentioned in the Constitution. A couple of weeks before, the Coun­cil of Common Interests (CCI) had approved the results of the 2023 digital census making it com­pulsory for the ECP to conduct fresh delimita­tion of constituencies. According to the schedule, it would take the top election body to complete the process of delimitation of constituencies in around four months.

A statement issued by the ECP along with the schedule stated that since the official results of the seventh Population and Housing Digital Cen­sus 2023, has been published by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on August 7, 2023, Article 51 of the Constitution, read along with section 17 of the Elections Act, 2017, the body was legally ob­ligated to carry out fresh delimitation of Constit­uencies after the publication of official results of the census.