The ECP clarifies that people must not hand their CNICs to staff during the house count.
“No,” answered a confused AR Baloch, who was supervising a team. “We start work at 9 am and finish by 5 pm.” And then as an afterthought he asked: “Did you check the card or other identification of these people?”
Raheel shrugged: “No, I thought the ECP staff worked at night as well.”
Thus, on the first official day of the house count in Karachi ahead of voter verification, it appeared that mischief was afoot. But it would not go ignored, said Assistant Registration Officer Noor Jahan. She is going to lodge a complaint with higher authorities about this dubious registration process taking place at night. “We have nothing to do with it,” she told The Express Tribune. When asked about these ghost enumerators, Sindh Election Commissioner Mehboob Anwar said, however, that staff could work at night. “There is no restriction,” he told this newspaper. “Enumerators can work 24 hours [if they want] to finish the task.” Either way, not all residents seemed to be aware of their right to ask an ECP staffer to show ID and the ECP has not advertised what it should look like.
Despite stories like these, it appeared that work was well underway on Friday. Commissioner Anwar said that 25% of the house listing had been done and the district election commissioners would submit a progress report to him by January 14. The count will continue till Tuesday after which the voter list crosschecks will begin.
Some residents were, however, extremely savvy.
“Where is the army,” said a woman in Mehmoodabad No. 5 when the ECP team knocked on her door. “How have you people come without it? We want to know whether you belong to the election commission office or a political party.”
The enumerator and his supervisor quickly dug out their cards as proof. “We are from the Election Commission,” they said. “Please tell us: who is the head of your family, your address, the total number of family members over 18 years.”
Just as those words had come out of their mouths, the woman’s husband came out. “The Supreme Court ordered that the verification will start with the army,” he said. “We will not give you information until the army personnel come here. You cannot even enter this street.”
The enumerator tried to persuade him that the armed forces had nothing to do with the house listing process and may join them at the time of voter verification. But when the couple stood their ground, the supervisor called for help. Two Rangers and police vehicles quickly reached the spot and the work resumed.
“We are patrolling the area, so whenever you need us, please call,” Major Naveed told the election staff. He clarified that they have orders to monitor but they can’t go door to door.
There have been no reports of violence - primarily because of the army’s presence. In fact, according to Muhammad Khalil, the Azam Town ARO, who has been doing the housing census for the last 20 years, they used to be harassed by party activists earlier on, but now the process is much more transparent and everyone is being careful because of the army’s watchful eye.
And so the enumerators come through Karachi with their shoulder bag, map, guideline book, marker, pen, paper sheets and stamp pad. Aftab Ahmed with Noorul Islam Government Secondary School, Mehmoodabad, for example, has been asked to cover 170 houses in four days, so he does 50 families a day.
The ECP staff has been getting a lot of questions. One person in Manzoor Colony wanted to know what they had to do if they were registered to vote in Lyari but had just moved house. The Lyari record will be deleted and once the new details are entered, the family will be registered in their new constituency. Someone else wanted to know if family members living abroad had to be listed. They do.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2013.
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