KARACHI: A constitutional petition was filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday against the rules made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for Election Act, 2017.
Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) MNA Ehsan ur Rehman Mazari and MPA Haji Abdul Rauf Khoso submitted in their joint petition that millions of voters of Sindh would lose their representation in the parliament owing to the rules made by the ECP.
They contended that as per the Act, a national assembly seats consists of at least 0.7 million people in the constituency but as per rules the number have been increased up to 1 million.
The petitioners said that Jacobabad would lose one national assembly seat as its 0.2 million voters will be deprived of their representation if the elections were held as per these rules.
Citing ECP, the federal and provincial authorities as the respondents, the PPP lawmakers prayed to the court to direct the authorities concerned to ensure that elections must held according to true spirit and letter of Election Act, 2017.
After the preliminary hearing, the court issued notices the respondents as well as the federal and the provincial law officers, directing them to submit their replies by February 15.