HARIPUR: The Election Commission of Pakistan bench on Tuesday dismissed the review petition for the correction of variations in the population distribution of two provincial assembly constituencies of Haripur district and upheld the ECP’s order of April 9, 2018.

The decision on the petition of Haripur residents Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan, Asad Usman and Saifur Rehman was made by a five-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner retired justice Mohammad Raza.

Faisal Bin Khursheed, the counsel for respondents, said pointed out variation in the population of voters in both PK-40 and PK-42 constituencies and prayed for correction by ordering fresh delimitation.

ECP bench upholds commission’s order in this respect

Justice Amir Farooq of the Islamabad High Court had remanded the case to the ECP on May 30 for reviewing the variation of voter population in the two constituencies.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the ECP issued a short order to dismiss the petition and thus, upholding the ECP’s April 9, 2018, order.

Lawyer Faisal said the Haripur municipal committee along with the patwar circles of Haripur, Darwesh and Dheri Malikyar were attached to PK-42 Haripur-III instead of PK-40 Haripur-I, while the areas of Khalabat Township municipal committee along with patwar circles of Chohar Sharif, Dhenda, Jagal and Makhan were made part of PK-40 instead of PK-42.

He challenged the delimitation pointing out flaws, including annexing Haripur city with Ghazi tehsil and showing the country’s largest Tarbela lake as a mere piece of land on the ECP’s map. The petitioner also prayed for changes to the new delimitation.

The ECP’s full bench headed by retired justice Sardar Mohammad Raza had issued a detailed order on April 9, 2018, revising the delimitation by re-annexing the areas of Haripur municipal committee, patwar circles of Darwesh and Dhehri Malikyar to PK-40 and areas falling in the limits of Khalabat Township municipal committee and patwar circles of Dhenda, Jagal, Chohar Sharif and Makhan to PK-42.

Haripur’s voter population remained divided into four constituencies, including PK-39, PK-40, PK-41 and PK-42 since the 2002 elections.

However, the district lost one provincial assembly seat in the recent delimitation, which reduced the number of constituencies to three but it continued to have one National Assembly seat though it was declared NA-17 instead of earlier NA-19.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2018