PESHAWAR: In the preliminary delimitation by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the first since the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (now tribal districts) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018, the number of National Assembly seats for the rugged northwestern region has reduced from 12 to six in line with the 25th Constitutional Amendment.

The province will have 55 National Assembly seats, including 45 general and 10 women’s, according to the delimitation, whose details were released last Wednesday.

Similarly, the provincial assembly will have 115 general seats, 26 for women and four for non-Muslims, taking the entire strength of the house to 145.

In the preliminary delimitation, 12 NA seats of the ex-Fata have been halved - for the first time – in line with the 25th Constitutional Amendment that reduced the region’s seats after the Fata merger with KP.

ECP says NA constituencies for tribal districts reduced from 12 to six as population ‘rationalised’

Of those 12 seats, Bajaur, South Waziristan, Kurram and Khyber districts have lost one each and Frontier Regions their only one.

However, Mohmand district will retain its single NA seat, according to the ECP’s delimitation report.

The ECP merged Orakzai and Hangu districts into a single constituency due to low population.

The report said that 10 out of 36 KP districts didn’t attain the population threshold for an exclusive NA seat, so their constituencies were merged with those of neighbouring districts.

It added that three districts of Kohistan region, including Upper and Lower Kohistan and Kolai-Palas, would continue to have a single NA constituency like Chitral region, which was bifurcated in Lower and Upper Chitral districts.

The report said Upper Chitral district having the “ratio of seat in fraction as 0.22 being insufficient for one seat” had been clubbed with Lower Chitral district with the seat share of 0.35 in an inter-district constituency. Both Chitral districts separately have insufficient share required for an independent NA seat, according to it.

The two districts came into being after the bifurcation of one Chitral district.

“Geographically, the two [Chitral] districts are conjoined and inhabitants form socially and ethnically a cohesive community and hence, considering homogeneity and public convenience, they’re merged into one National Assembly constituency,” the report said.

It said Tank district had been merged with Dera lsmail Khan district to rationalise the population in an inter-district constituency.

“Tank district remained part of Dera lsmail Khan in the past. Both [Tank and DI Khan] districts have identical features based on homogeneity and geographical proximity and hence, they’re clubbed,” it said.

The report said the ECP had given Hangu and Orakzai districts one combined NA seat due to inadequate population for an independent seat for Orakzai district.

It said Orakzai couldn’t be “conveniently” clubbed with any other district except Hangu as inhabitants of both districts were socially and economically interdependent and interconnected.

However, the ECP clubbed Mansehra and Torghar districts together due to low population of the latter.

As for the seats of the KP Assembly, Swat district has got another constituency as a result of an increase in population.

Similarly, the number of provincial assembly seats for Shangla district has gone up from two to three according to the revised share in the house strength on the basis of an increase in population in line with the latest census.

“Three constituencies in the [Shangla] district were drawn as PK-28 Shangla-I, PK-29 Shangla-II and PK-30 Shangla-III with a population of 317,030, 299,259 and 274,963, respectively,” the report said.

It added that Upper and Lower Chitral, which were in a single constituency before bifurcation, had separate provincial assembly constituencies.

The report, however, revealed that Peshawar district had lost a constituency in the provincial assembly taking its strength in the house from 14 to 13.

It added that the latest delimitation had reduced the number of Bajaur’s provincial assembly seats from four to three but doubled the single seat of Hangu district.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2023