Fresh delimitation of Assembly seats agitates Chitralis

Chitral .. The fresh delimitation of Assembly seats bill passed by the the Senate has caused unrest and worry for Chitralis, as according to the details available, one the two Provincial Assembly seats will be taken away from Chitral on the basis of the 2017 census. The other districts in KP to suffer similarly are Abbottabad, Haripur, Charsadda and Swabi.

The bill will decrease nine National Assembly seats (seven general and two women seats) of the most populous Punjab province, and will increase five seats (four general and one women seat) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three seats of the largest province of Balochistan (two general, one women seats) and one of federal capital. The number of NA seats for Sindh province and FATA will remain the same.

It may be noted that until 1985 Chitral had only one provincial Assembly seat and in the 1970 general elections, it shared it’s sole National Assembly seat with parts of Dir and Swat districts.

Political leaders have started issuing statements of condemnation of the latest development and even started hurling threats of ‘dire consequences’ if a provincial Assembly seat was taken away from Chitral. .. CN report, 21 Dec 2017

2 thoughts on “Fresh delimitation of Assembly seats agitates Chitralis

  1. Politicians will raise a hue and cry over this, but when time comes to offer personal sacrifice for the cause, they would vanish into thin air

  2. The passage of the 24th Amendment bill on de-limitation by the senate abolished one of its two provincial Assembly seats of Chitral on the basis of the recent population census. As a result of the de-limitation Bill, Chitral will go into the upcoming general elections with only one provincial assembly seat. This new development has created a furore in Chitral demanding the Election Commission of Pakistan to retain the number of seats as it is. Our demand is premised on the ground that Chitral is the largest district of KP in terms of territory and secondly the turn out in the general elections in Chitral remains comparatively higher as opposed to other districts in the tribal areas of Khyber pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan. The residents of Chitral vehemently oppose the idea that the population density should be the only criterion for the distribution of seats. The topography of Chitral is poles apart from that of the settled areas of the country. This is a difficult and rugged terrain and that is the reason the KP government has recently issued directives for its bifurcation into two districts for being administered conveniently. It is beyond understanding as to how could a single member of the assembly represent two districts with a vast territorial expanse. The need of the hour is that the policy of the de-limitation is revisited in the case of Chitral in view of the ground realities.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *