Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has said that after the Council of Common Interests (CCI) approves the new census, the general elections in the country may be postponed till March next year, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said. There is a need to delimit new boundaries. .
“If the constituencies are delimited, the elections will be held in the third week of February or the first week of March,” the security czar said on Monday.
The ECP is bound to hold the next general elections — earlier scheduled for October or November this year — on the basis of a fresh digital census after the 2023 headcount was “unanimously” approved at the CCI meeting on Saturday. Is.
According to the statement issued after the meeting, the approval of Census 2023 was given by consensus of the four chief ministers and representatives of all political parties.
Referring to the CCI decision, Sanaullah also said: “In my opinion, holding of fresh delimitation is a constitutional obligation.”
He said that according to the constitution, two general elections cannot be held on the basis of one census.
He added that the constitution has also made it mandatory that the new delimitation of constituencies be done after the results of the new census are officially notified.
He also admitted that political parties had raised various objections over the results of the 2023 census.
Talking about the appointment of caretaker prime minister, Sanaullah said that no name has been finalized for the interim chief executive yet.
“The MQMP has proposed the name of [Governor Sindh] Kamran Tesori for the post,” the federal minister added, adding that another coalition partner, “the PPP, is also considering giving one or two names.” intends to”.
He further said that the final name of caretaker prime minister will be revealed by tomorrow (Tuesday).
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government on August 9 announced the premature dissolution of the National Assembly, allowing the ECP to hold elections within 90 days instead of 60 if the legislature 12 Completes its constitutional term on August.
A day ago, Sanaullah revealed that the name of former Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh has also been shortlisted for caretaker prime minister.
The security czar said that the name of a retired Supreme Court judge is also among the shortlisted candidates for the coveted post.
He added that the name for the caretaker prime minister would be finalized by Tuesday or Wednesday (August 8 or 9).
