Pak SC directs EC to complete printing of electoral rolls

Islamabad, Oct 5 (UNI) The Pakistan Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to complete printing of the updated electoral lists by October 25 and place it on its website for information of political parties and the general public.

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Sardar Raza Khan passed the directive on identical petitions PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan Institute for Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) and Barrister Zafarullah.

Counsel for PILDAT Shahid Hamid contended that the electoral lists being updated by EC may contain errors as it was based on the electoral lists of 2002. ''The lists may contain bogus voters and the names of those who have passed away,'' he added.

He said electoral lists should be placed on the EC's website and the political parties may be involved in the process to scrutinise the lists.

Counsel for the EC Mohammad Bilal said under fresh collection of data 27 million voters have been added to the electoral lists and now the total number of disenfranchise voters stands at 80 million.

He said about 99 per cent work on the process has been completed on the directions of the Supreme Court.

The Chief Justice raised the point that those people attaining the age of 18 years by this time, are also entitled to be registered as voters.

On the plea of counsel for PILDAT, Justice Chaudhry said they were not disposing the case, unless printing copies are supplied to petitioners and they are satisfied with the new practice.

UNI