Qureshi raises questions over new delimitation of constituencies

ISLAMABAD: Former foreign minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi has raised questions over the new delimitation of constituencies, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the former federal minister claimed that there is no constitutional or legal justification for the new delimitations.

“Fresh delimitations were conducted for personal gains,” Shah Mehmood said, adding that everyone one knows who will benefit from this delimitation.

The PTI leader also said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has lost its creditability. “If the watchdog failed to fold fair and transparent elections, a new political crisis will arise,” he added.

Citing an example, the PTI leader said that the Election Commission declared PTI Member of Sindh Assembly dead in the new delimitations. “The MPA received a message from ECP, in which he was declared dead and his name was removed from the voters’ list,” Qureshi pointed out.

The former foreign minister noted that international rating agency Moody’s downgraded the outlook on Pakistan’s rating to negative from stable. ” The country is on the verge of bankruptcy due to the current economic situation,” he added.

Qureshi reiterated the party’s demand for an immediate election, saying that the Election Commission should hold fair and transparent elections. “The watchdog should be neutral,” he demanded.

Earlier in the day, Moody’s affirmed the Government of Pakistan’s B3 local and foreign currency issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings and changed the outlook to negative from stable.

The credit rating agency said in a statement that the decision to change the outlook to negative is driven by Pakistan’s heightened external vulnerability risk and uncertainty around the sovereign’s ability to secure additional external financing to meet its needs.