Letter to ministries: ECP seeks army security for voter verification
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has dispatched letters to the defence and interior secretaries for providing the services of Pakistan Army and Frontier Constabulary (FC) during the door-to-door voter verification process in Karachi.
According to a press release on Friday, the letters requested the secretaries to issue instructions for necessary arrangements so that ECP may start the process under proper security in the last week of December. It further asks them to direct authorities concerned to remain in touch with the Sindh election commission to finalise the security plan.
“The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan in its order on December 5, has directed ECP to carry out complete door to door verification of electoral rolls in Karachi … the effective part of the SC’s order reads that: In view of the peculiar security situation in Karachi such verification must be carried out … with the help and assistance of Pakistan Army and FC,” read the letter issued to the defence and interior secretaries.
According to ECP officials, there are 8.6 million voters in Karachi. Door-to-door verification of voters in the economic hub will start from December 17 and is expected to take close to a month. Once the process is completed, the National Database and Registration Authority will cross-check the data gathered with its databases.
Taking political parties on board
Meanwhile, the ECP has also decided to take political parties in Karachi onboard to examine the delimitation of constituencies in the city.
According to another ECP press release, the commission has sent letters to various political parties, asking them to send two representatives to attend its meeting on December 20 at the ECP Secretariat.
The letters cite the SC’s order on delimitation, which states that “To avoid political polarisation and to break the cycle of ethnic strife, the boundaries of administrative units ought to be altered so that the members of different communities may live together in peace and harmony,”
According to the ECP secretary, so far 10 political parties have submitted their proposals for delimitation.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 15th, 2012.
COMMENTS (11)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Bilal: A better solution would be that MQM accepts the reality
@Zzzz So you are saying that this voter list thing is the solution of gang war and ethnic violence? How come...?
Best solution is to accept MQM as reality!
@Bilal: Becuase there are no gang wars / ethnicity based violence in that city. There is no concept of any area belonging to Pathans, punjabis, Sindhis or Urdu speaking people in Lahore. If you really love Karachi then this should happen. Mqm vote bank will not change becuase of this exercise. However, the way they are behaving it seems that daal mein buhat kuch kala hai!!
Why not crete this example in whole Pakistan.
Why only Karachi, why not Lahore?
It is time that verification of the voters done house by house in Karachi. Above all make it very simple, those who want to cast their ballots at their permanent address should do so by traveling to that constituency. However one could also be allowed to vote where they reside now. In Kansas, even if you move within the State to a different County, one could go to the local office ( court house) and present photo ID and register to vote there. It is very convenient,simple and takes about 10 minutes to do the whole registration process for voting locally . Americans generally like to vote in their neighborhoods and that is the way it should be for Pakistanis too.I would suggest to get rid of this so called permanent address and just make it simple and convenient.Register locally and vote locally with only one address where a person is residing at present.
Are we taking into account the input of census in this excercise ? As far as my mempory goes we did not have a census in last 15 years.
Good to announce such a news on a volatile day with the city already closed. Now they can mourn together for two reasons on the same day, rather than throwing tantrums at a future date ;) if you know what I mean
The issue of the voters list is very simple and need not to waste a lot of money and human resource. As we all know that there are two addresses on CNIC; permanent & Present and it is the requirement to produce original CNIC at the time of voting. Thus the voter must be residing on the present address or on permanent address, no room for the 3rd address. The voters list may be prepared with a click on key board with permanent address on CNIC of entire country and if any one wanted to have his/her name on present address as per CNIC, he/she may send a sms to a number (may be specified by NADRA/EC) from a mobile number registered in his/her own name or a family members name (this will be verified by NADRA). The NADRA/EC may give 15 days time to sms for request in change of voter list. This may be done through countrywide media campaign and all parties must also campaign it at their own level. The work is so easy and cost effective if we use already available NADRA data base if NADRA thinks its data base is reliable. No need to involve army, police, rangers, FC, teachers, other government departments etc except NADRA/EC. However, if one wanted to get it vote registered on a address other than permanent or present address, the SC/EC should ask him/her for the reasons.
Great.... looking forward for this.... :) Congrates Karachiites.