The National Assembly was told on Thursday that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was considering the insertion of a new column in nomination forms to obtain information about dual nationalities, if any, of the candidates of future elections.
In a written reply, Law Minister Maula Bakhsh Chandio told the National Assembly during the question hour that the ECP had no data about dual nationalities of parliamentarians and provincial assembly members since there was no column in the nomination forms to obtain that information. To a question, the law minister said National Accountability Courts had decided 1,293 cases in the last five years, and 553 cases were still pending.
The communication minister told the House that last year’s floods had completely destroyed 410 kilometres and damaged 383 kilometres of National Highway Authority roads. The minister said the floods had washed away 20 bridges and damaged another 26. “PC-1 for post-flood reconstruction and replacement projects of Rs 23.6 billion has since been recommended by the CDWP (Central Development Working Party) for approval by ECNEC (Executive Committee of the National Economic Council).
Rehabilitation and reconstruction of flood-damaged (road) sections and bridges are yet to be undertaken awaiting approval of PC-1 by ECNEC and release of funds by the government,” the minister said in a written reply. Responding to a question, the defence production minister told the House that Pakistan had earned $299 million in the last five years from export of defence products to various countries in the public and private sector.
The defence minister told the House that out of a total of 51,133 flights operated by Pakistan International Airlines in 2010, 16,358 flights were delayed because of technical or unavoidable reasons, while 4,740 flights were delayed because of poor weather. Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah told the House that after the introduction of a computerised voting system in the country, around 37 million bogus voters would be removed from the ECP’s list.
The Election Law (Amendment) Bill of 2011, which was recently approved by parliament, would be sent to the president on Thursday (April 28) to be signed, Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi said, and added that the next general elections would be held in 2013. Chandio told the House that the ECP was preparing computerised electoral rolls in collaboration with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) for the next general and local government elections.
He said the electoral rolls, containing accurate data of each voter, would be published by the end of the year and would help eliminate duplication and bogus votes. He said the voter lists were being prepared according to the new census blocks adopted by the Census Organisation during house-to-house counting.
“The electoral rolls will be according to the standards set by the national and international community for the conduct of free and fair elections,” he added.