ISLAMABAD, March 26: Chief Election Commissioner Irshad Hasan Khan said on Tuesday that boundaries of the constituencies were reviewable provided representation was “desirable” in the interest of justice.

Speaking at a press conference, the CEC said any person entitled to vote in a National Assembly or a Provincial Assembly election, may within 15 days of the publication of this report as contemplated in section 10 of the Delimitation of Constituencies Act, 1974, could make a representation to the Commission in respect of the delimitation of constituencies.

The constituencies were earmarked, he said, keeping in view the population, geographical compactness, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and public convenience and other cognate factors to ensure “homogeneity in the creation of new constituencies.

Efforts had been made to ensure that as far as possible the constituencies should be equal in population, the CEC said.

The share of seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies in respect of each district was worked out on the basis of 1998 population census, he added.

In working out the quota for National Assembly seats, the population of a province, Fata and federal capital was divided by the number of National Assembly seats (general) allocated to each province, Fata and federal capital under the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002, and the average population or quota per National Assembly seats was obtained.

In the case of provincial assembly, the population of a province was divided by the total number of general seats allocated to the provincial assembly of that province.

NA constituencies for the general seats are single member territorial constituencies, (currently in vogue). No constituencies were delimited for the seats reserved for women and technocrats because under the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002, each province forms one constituency with as many seats as allocated to the province in the National Assembly or in a provincial assembly, as the case may be.

The share of districts, he said, was determined by dividing the population of that district with the quota per seat of the National Assembly or as the case may be, of the provincial assembly.

Generally, a fraction of 0.5 of the population was taken as one National Assembly seat. The principle was, however, ignored in some cases to ensure that the seats allocated to one province/ area/ agency in the National Assembly did not exceed the total number of seats allocated to the province.

The CEC said that in one case in Okara district, one seat was allocated for a fraction below 0.5 to ensure that the number of provincial assembly seats in the province of Punjab did not exceed the total number of 148 seats.

Similarly, he said, four seats were allocated to Nawabshah district for the lowest fraction of 0.57 as compared to other fractions above 0.50 to keep the number of provincial assembly constituencies as 130. Similarly, Malakand Protected Area (MPA) has a share of 2.52. The CEC said that normally it should have been allocated three seats being above 0.50 but in that case the number of seats for NWFP would have increased from 99 to 100. Thus the fraction of 0.52 being the lowest as compared to other fractions above 0.50, two seats have been allocated to MPA.