Senate failed to take it up on Friday due to lower strength than required

ISLAMABAD: Senate is likely to take up the bill on delimitation of constituencies today after it failed to do so on Friday due to lower strength than required.

The house of 104 needed a two-thirds majority to pass the bill whereas less than 50 lawmakers were present in the house on Friday.

The Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2017 pertains to the fresh delimitation of constituencies in line with the provisional results of the latest census in light of the general elections next year.

The upper house, however, managed to pass the same day the Elections Amendment Bill, 2017, related to Khatam-e-Nabuwat clauses for voters, after the National Assembly (NA) did the same on Thursday.

Senate passes Khatam-e-Nabuwat bill; fails to pass delimitation law due to low strength

The National Assembly on Thursday passed the Khatam-e-Nabuwat and delimitation bills with 242 votes

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.

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.