There seems to be anxiety in some quarters about the anticipated large number of representations (or objections) about the preliminary delimitation scheme recently announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Based on the anticipated large number of representations, doubts are being expressed about the ability of the ECP to dispose of the anticipated load of representations.

Last time when delimitation exercise was undertaken by the ECP before the GeneralElection 2002, a total of 945 representations were received for all the National and Provincial Assembly constituencies. The ECP, at that time, had dealt with all the representations within the allotted time of 30 days and the final delimitation scheme was notified in time according to the law.

It is too early to predict the exact number of representations to be received this time before the deadline of April 3, 2018. However, as of March 27, 7 days before the deadline, a total of 89 representations were received by the ECP, as per the statistics uploaded on the ECP official website. Apparently, this indicates that the number of representations anticipated this time will not be higher or much higher than was the case in 2002.

Another perspective to keep in mind is that the ECP has a much better capacity today than it had in 2002 to deal with the representations.

It is, therefore, safe to assume that the ECP will be able to dispose off all the received representations within the allotted time of 30 days by May 3, 2018 and it should, in no way, impact the scheduled holding of the General Election in July/August this year.

It must also be remembered that the law does not provide for appeal against the ECP decision on delimitation in a court of law and hence apprehensions of prolonged litigation are unfounded.