Bogus votes: SC directs ECP not to shift votes to other constituencies

Orders the election body to obtain voters’ consent before registering votes.

ISLAMABAD: The superior court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to not register votes to other constituencies without obtaining voters’ consent.   

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heard a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan regarding bogus votes.

Justice Azmat Sheikh Saeed and Justice Gulzar Ahmad were the other two members of the bench.

During the hearing, Jamaat-i-Islami’s (JI) counsel Rasheed A Rizvi informed the court that the ECP had shifted votes of migrants, particularly those in Karachi, to their permanent addresses without their consent.

To this Director General ECP Sher Afghan replied that the election body could not approach the migrants due to floods in Sindh and that after deliberating with the National Database and Regulatory Authority (NADRA), votes of these people were registered on their permanent addresses.

Rizvi, however, snubbed the move saying that the migrants had been living in the province since long and it was not possible for them to vote from their native towns.

After hearing the arguments, the court maintained that ECP cannot register votes to any other constituency without obtaining voters’ consent. The apex court said the exercise was against the commission’s own laws and rules.

The court also ordered ECP to remove errors from electoral rolls and directed the commission to finalise the lists on an emergency basis. The bench stated that there should be no delay in elections due to inaccuracies in the lists.

The Supreme Court reiterated that the Army and Frontier Corps (FC) can be called to assist the ECP in the next general elections, as per its July 4 order.

The court adjourned the hearing till Thursday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2012.