Senate of Pakistan. Photo: File 

ISLAMABAD: The Senate is expected to pass today the amendment to the Elections Act 2017 after the National Assembly did the same on Thursday.

The constitutional amendment bill on delimitation was passed with 242 parliamentary members voting in its favour. The bill pertains to fresh delimitation of constituencies in line with the provisional results of the latest census in light of the general elections next year. 

Moreover, the lower house also passed the amendment related to the restoration of the Khatam-e-Nabuwat [finality of Prophethood] clause to its original form.

Both the bills were presented before the assembly by Law Minister Zahid Hamid. They will now be presented in the Senate. 

According to the new delimitation, Punjab's seat share in the National Assembly will decrease by nine seats, while Islamabad will get one more seat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa five and Balochistan three more.

NA seats for FATA and Sindh will remain unchanged.

Khatam-e-Nabuwat clause restored to previous form after NA passes amended election bill

Prior to the National Assembly session, a meeting of the parliamentary leaders was held

Earlier, NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had said after chairing a meeting of parliamentary parties that the total NA seats will remain 272 but there would be a change in the allocation of NA seats for the provinces.

On November 13, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved delimitation of new constituencies on the basis of provisional results of Population Census 2017, paving a way for timely conduct of next general elections.

Briefing the media after the CCI meeting, the prime minister's special aide, Musaddiq Malik, said the political leadership resolved a major constitutional crisis through wisdom. "The election commission will immediately start working on the delimitation of new constituencies following a constitutional amendment," he said.