SC expresses displeasure over Karachi voter verification process

Karachi voter verification still in doldrums, SC strictly advises FC and army to supervise.

KARACHI: The Supreme Court has questioned why the Sindh election commissioner has not conducted door-to-door verification under the assistance of army and FC, reported Express News on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court said that they had clearly ordered the Sindh election commissioner that voter registration should be done with the help of the army and Frontier Corps (FC).

Earlier, on February 7 a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed heard the case regarding the verification of voter lists in Karachi. The Supreme Court had asked the Sindh election commissioner to submit a detailed report and affidavit regarding door to-door verification process.

The Sindh election commissioner failed to satisfy the bench today and the SC strictly instructed the official yet again to coordinate with the army and FC and conduct voter verification under their supervision.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) had moved the court on December 5 seeking verification of voter lists, while, significantly, the MQM had raised objections to the move.

The petitioners had alleged that approximately 50% of the voters in Karachi had their vote shifted to other parts of the country to their permanent addresses; and, in their place, names of unverified voters had been inserted.