Pakistan’s Election Commission on Monday announced that new electoral rolls cannot be finalised by February 23 as mandated by the Supreme Court, saying any undue haste in preparing computerised lists may lead to the inclusion of unverified votes.
Chief Election Commissioner Hamid Ali Mirza said during a meeting with leaders of the country's main political parties that his organisation would be unable to meet the deadline set by the apex court and could finalise new voters' lists only by May.
Mirza said the poll panel had sent a report in this regard to the Supreme Court. Undue haste in preparing computerised electoral rolls may lead to a repeat of mistakes committed in 2007, when 37 million unverified votes were included in the lists, he said.
Inaccurate electoral rolls were prepared in 2007 on the ‘directions of some other quarters’, he said.
At that time, the poll panel was directed to prepare the rolls in a month. Mirza cautioned that ‘if such a desire prevailed’ now, the ‘responsibility would lie with that quarter’.
The Commission must be allowed to complete the gigantic task of publishing computerised voter lists ‘as it may deem appropriate’, he told the meeting.
The Constitution gives every state institution the right to work within its limits and the Election Commission should be allowed to work within its domain, he said. Any failure by the poll panel to fulfil all constitutional obligations while finalising the rolls would amount to a violation of the Constitution, Mirza underlined.
Any attempt by any quarter to ‘encroach upon the function entrusted to the Election Commission’ would ‘negate the concept of an independent’ poll panel as demanded by political parties, civil society and the media, Mirza said.
Parties back EC
Most of the political parties present at the meeting, including the PML-Q and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, backed the Election Commission’s stand.
The meeting was convened by the poll panel for consultations with the parties on finalising the electoral rolls and other related issues. In a related development, Mirza and Election Commission Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said the staying of several by-polls by the Supreme Court was a violation of the Constitution but the poll panel would honour the apex court's order.
Addressing a news conference, Khan said the apex court did not hear the Commission before issuing the order to stay the by-elections on the ground that the electoral rolls contained the names of bogus voters.
Khan made it clear that authorities would issue the final voters’ lists no earlier than May 25. He dismissed the impression that the rolls were being prepared at the behest of "some entity".
In his remarks at the meeting, Mirza described the top court’s order to stay scheduled by-elections as a move ‘against the Constitution’. He said the apex court’s move was a violation of the constitution as the Commission was constitutionally bound to hold bye-elections within 60 days of a seat falling vacant.