Election matters: Parties still unhappy with amended Karachi voters list

ECP takes notice of job regularisations; election schedule to be announced after March 16.


Our Correspondent March 07, 2013
PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:


Political parties, which had been protesting against supposed flaws in the electoral lists of Karachi, are still unsatisfied with a second exercise carried out by the election authorities to remove their reservations.


Representatives of the Sindh chapters of the Jamat-e-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz  and other opposition parties met the officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday in this regard.

“We have been demanding the ECP to include all those voters who have Karachi as their current addresses in their CNICs in the voters list,” JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch told reporters after the meeting.

The army could not play its role in providing security to ECP enumerators during the re-verification exercise on the orders of the Supreme Court, he added.



The results of the fresh electoral verification exercise are yet to be made public by the ECP.

The exercise was carried out on the orders of the apex court after the parties filed a petition challenging the authenticity of the voters lists compiled last year. Except for the MQM and the Pakistan Peoples Party, all other parties in Karachi have been protesting against, what they termed, the flawed voters list.

Notices

In cognizance of media reports on violation of its ban on bulk appointments, the commission has issued notices to the Punjab chief secretary, the Benazir Income Support Programme and the Pakistan Telecom Authority.

The commission sent separate notices to top officials of these institutions and asked them to respond within three days.

The Punjab government recently regularised the services of over 100,000 contract employees working in different provincial departments.

ECP officials said they have asked the provincial chief secretary to explain whether this action falls under the ban imposed by ECP on all recruitments in bulk or not.

In its letter to the BISP secretary, the commission has sought an explanation on media reports on the distribution of Rs100,000 to people in Sindh as loans.



Election authorities have also sought an explanation from PTA over the appointment of its ousted chairman Farooq Awan as a member of the authority.

Election schedule

ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan told reporters that the commission would announce a schedule for the 2013 general elections immediately after March 16.

He said besides the State Bank of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue, National Accountability Commission and other relevant departments, the commission is considering including the Higher Education Commission in the committee that will be assisting the ECP in scrutiny of nomination papers of contesting candidates.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2013.

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