The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday declared the delimitation of NA-35 and NA-36 of Kohat as void and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to notify their delimitation afresh.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq announced a reserved verdict after hearing arguments from the petitioners during the proceedings conducted on December 12.

The court directed the ECP to conduct new delimitations in the constituencies after hearing all concerned.

During the December 12 hearing, Barrister Umar Ejaz Gilani appeared on behalf of the petitioner regarding NA-35 and stated that some constituencies were comprising around 600,000 population while several had 1.3 million population each, APP reported.

The ECP’s lawyer said that the electoral body was not bound by district boundaries in the formation of constituencies due to which some constituencies were different in size.

Justice Farooq remarked that the stance of the petitioners was strong but the position of the ECP was as per the ground facts.

The court remarked that “if we move under section 20 to ensure the populations of all constituencies as equal then there would be a need of new delimitations across the country.”