Musharraf to hold election on time: Chaudhry

Islamabad, Aug 11: Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said that President Pervez Musharraf had expressed commitment to hold the general elections on time, so there would not be any delay in compilation of the new electoral rolls.

Presiding over a two-member division bench including Justice Javed Buttar, the Chief Justice rejected the Election Commission's (EC) request for more time, and directed it to ensure that all eligible missing voters were enlisted within 30 days.

At the last hearing, the Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission to ensure registration of all eligible voters.

The EC sought 140 days to complete the exercise of registering over 20 million voters. But the court observed that no pretext could be provided for postponement of the general election.

The commission already has electoral rolls of 2002 with 72 million registered voters," the Chief Justice said, adding that the new electoral rolls had over 50 million registered votes.

The commission had to add only 22 million voters for which one month's period was enough, the Chief Justice observed.

The SC also directed the EC to inform the court how would it enroll the missing voters in the given time. The bench will resume the proceedings of the case on August 16.

The Supreme Court bench was hearing a petition by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto against the draft electoral rolls over alleged irregularities.

In her petition, Bhutto alleged that millions of voters could not be registered in the voters' lists because of the precondition of electoral rolls, the Daily Times reported.

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