Redrawing Karachi constituencies: CEC to chair brainstorming session on delimitation

Move follows rejection of commission’s plea against delimitation by Supreme Court.


Our Correspondent March 04, 2013
Chief Election Commissioner Justice Fakharuddin G Ebrahim. PHOTO: APP

ISLAMABAD:


The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hold a brainstorming session, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Fakharuddin G Ebrahim, over the delimitation of constituencies in Karachi on Tuesday, a senior ECP official has told The Express Tribune.


Recently, the Supreme Court rejected the commission’s plea for deferring the delimitation process and observed a ‘lack of will’ on its part. The court rejected ECP’s argument that the process could not be initiated in the absence of a fresh census.

According to the official, while the delimitation process itself would not take much time, it could not be carried out without consensus among the stakeholders.

Meanwhile, the official maintained the verification of voter lists in Karachi has been completed.

“We are hopeful that all stakeholders would be satisfied with the verification of Karachi voters and would not have any objection,” he added.



The door-to-door verification of 6.8 million voters in the provincial capital of Sindh started in January. The initiative was aided by the army and other law-enforcement agencies, whose personnel provided security to ECP officials.

1st anniversary of voters’ SMS service

Sunday marked the first anniversary of the ‘world’s largest voters’ SMS service’, launched by the ECP to remove errors in electoral rolls. However, only 15 million people across the country have used the service to verify their votes over the past year against 70 million who chose not to, raising questions about the efficacy of the initiative.

“Pakistan is the only country to have launched an SMS verification service for voters, but millions of them have not checked [the validity of] their votes,” said ECP Additional Secretary Muhammad Afzal Khan while talking to The Express Tribune here on Sunday.

Responding to a question, Khan said the voters were provided an opportunity to have their votes registered at their desired location (electoral area). If there were some discrepancies, every voter can change his vote to his or her desired location until the announcement of the election schedule, he elaborated.

“Once the schedule is announced, the electoral rolls cannot be changed. Therefore, this is going to be the last chance for the voters to check their votes,” added the secretary.

The assemblies are set to finish their five-year tenure by March 16. The schedule for elections will be announced shortly after.

“We have sent letters to the heads of political parties asking them to request respective party members to persuade voters,” Khan said. Responding to a question, he said ECP offices would be working seven days a week to facilitate the voters.

The ECP is likely to issue a notification in this regard today (Monday). “We are ready to serve the nation,” Khan maintained. In the next couple of days we are going to launch another campaign in the media asking people to get their votes verified, he added.

The service had been launched in collaboration with the National Database and Registration Authority to help registered voters check the status of their votes and particulars.

Registered voters can send their Computerised National Identity Card numbers without hyphens via SMS to 8300 at anytime from anywhere in the country. After sending the SMS, the voter will subsequently receive a message in Urdu containing their name, village, city, tehsil or district, location and the serial number of vote registered in the preliminary electoral rolls.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2013.

COMMENTS (5)

MQM Supporter | 11 years ago | Reply

CJ personally pursuing the case of delimitation of Karachi only . When would he pursue the case of Hazara killings . what ever became the case of Arsalan Iftekhar his own son ? What about a Suo mutto on Abbas Town . Oh I forgot .Abbas town is not on the list of priorities .

HK | 11 years ago | Reply

I wonder what has stopped SC from taking up, with equal zeal and efficiency, the case related to Sindh Local Government Ordinance. Karachi's problems ensue as much from bad and divided governance as much to increasing criminality and failing police system. The new local government ordinance provided, and still provides the best shot for bringing back Karachi to its position. A centralized and coordinated local government would ensure that all citizens, irrespective of ethnicity or sect, develop and a cordinated police system would have ensured all benefits of community policing. A prompt action by SC in respect of this petition could have preempted its roll back by Sindh Government recently. Can SC really put its heart in the right place!

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