The chances of holding general elections in October are grim, 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Thursday.

The Election Commission has started brainstorming on new census and constituencies on a daily basis.

The CEC chaired a meeting which was attended by members of the commission, the secretary and the legal team. The meeting was briefed about constituencies after the new census.

The legal team gave a detailed briefing on Article 51 of the Constitution and Section 17 of the Election Act, sources said, adding that the team recommended making new constituencies which are mandatory for elections after the new census. The election commission is likely to announce new constituencies in a couple of days. 

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said a couple of days ago that the general elections would not be held this year, as a new census approved by the government last week required fresh constituency boundaries to be drawn–  a process that could take months.

The government approved the results of a digital census carried out this year. The ECP is now bound under the constitution to draw new constituency boundaries as per the results of the new population count.