Islamabad; February 02, 2018: The Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs met today under the Chairpersonship of Dr. Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal, MNA to discuss the proposed agenda.

Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs briefed the Committee regarding the comprehensive report/implementation status of the previous recommendations of the Committee. He informed that Ministry has compliance on the directions of the Committee and also sent letters to the concerned department for implementation on the direction of the Committee.

The Committee unanimously deferred the Bill “The Elections (Amendment) Act, 2017” moved by Ms. Naeema Kishwer Khan, MNA.

Additional Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) briefed the Committee regarding the delimitation of constituencies. He informed that ECP is delimiting the territorial constituencies for elections to the National Assembly and each Provincial Assembly in accordance with the provision of the constitution, the Act, and the rules framed there under. He said that provisional results of the population census 2017 published by the Federal Government in accordance with the article 51(5) of the constitution as amended vide constitution (twenty fourth) amendment Act 2017 shall be used for the said delimitation. He further informed that a fraction of more than 0.5 shall be ignored and ECP can deviate from this principle in exceptional cases for reasons to be recorded. He further brief the Committee about the determination of quota, time line of delimitation and quota per seat in National / Provincial Assembly.

Secretary, Statistics Division briefed the Committee regarding provision of data of last census block along with description. In this regard, he informed the Committee that the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Pakistan dated 7th December, 2016 and on the direction of the Council of Common of Interest (CCI) dated 16th December, 2016 the population and Housing Census-2017 was started throughout the country on 15th March, 2017 and completed on 24th May, 2017. He said that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has compiled Provisional Summary Results containing total number of Males, Females, Transgenders and total population alongwith urban / rural breakdown at National, Provincial, Administrative districts and tehsil level from REN-2 forms (Summary sheet) developed for each enumeration block.     

Sardar Ashiq Hussain Gopang, Mr. Rasheed Ahmad Khan, Mr. Nadeem Abbas Rabaira, Ch. Salman Haneef Khan, Ms. Shazia Mubashar, Ms. Arifa Khalid Parves, Dr. Shazia Sobia and Ms. Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak MNAs attended the meeting. The meeting was also attended by senior officers of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.