The delay in general elections beyond 90 days became official on Thursday as the Election Commission of Pakistan decided to press ahead with fresh delimitations.

The decision was taken in a high-level meeting of the ECP on Thursday, which was the fourth sitting on the topic of delimitation. Reports said that participants agreed that elections were not possible in the 90 days stipulated by the constitution.

A notification issued by the ECP after the meeting said that due to results of the census being approved by the Council of Common Interests, it was bound under article 51 of the constitution to begin fresh delimitations.

A scehdule for the delimitations has also been published by the ECP, with the date for final publishing being set at December 14.

The process of preliminary delimitations will begin from September 7 and end at October 7.

After the preliminary delimitations are published on October 9, a time of almost two months wil be set aside for filing and hearing of complaints and appeals.

The ECP also said that that the boundaries of all administrative units will stand frozen from Thursday.