‘Grant one-month extension to correct voter lists’

The Sindh Assembly called upon the federal government on Wednesday to give another one-month time to the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) for correcting thousands of “bogus and misplaced entries” in the voter lists.
The provincial legislature was told that massive irregularities were detected in the voter lists by lawmakers and officials of NADRA and the provincial election commission office that were prepared by the registration authorities.
“In a recent briefing by NADRA and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officials, we were told that over 100,000 votes of Sindh province had been shifted to Balochistan,” said PPP lawmaker Humera Alwani, who moved the resolution demanding a one-month extension for correction of voter lists.
“This assembly resolves that the (Sindh) government should approach the federal government to extend the deadline for a month for corrections in the voter lists and enrolling the names for the next general elections,” read the draft, adopted unanimously by the 168-member house.
Alwani said three, four people were also identified in the briefing for having used fake thumb impressions to rig voter lists. “One of the accused, hailing from Balochistan, is said to have used fingerprints on 15,000 enrolments… we want such people to be arrested immediately,” the legislator said.
The MQM lawmakers appeared uneasy when Alwani claimed that around 35,000 Sindh government employees, living permanently in Karachi, found out that their votes were registered from their ancestral villages in interior Sindh.
She said when the ECP was contacted, it advised such government servants to fill the Form 4. “A proper awareness campaign needs to be launched as most of them know nothing about the Form 4,” she demanded.
Referring to the erroneous listing of thousands of votes complained about by Murad Ali Shah, Sadiq Memon, Shaharyar Mahar and other lawmakers, the PPP lawmaker said the provincial election commission office and NADRA officials should be recalled for an in-house briefing. “We still have a lot of questions in our minds,” she added.
The statement did not go well with the MQM legislators, as Heer Soho warned that references like that of the registration of government employees in the province’s interior should be avoided. “This gives an impression as if this was done by a certain party,” she said.
She advised that the house better keep NADRA’s mistakes in focus and highlight the same.
Her party colleague Muzammil Qureshi was the next to reveal that over 7000 “bogus votes” were listed in the Shanti Nagar area of his constituency, Gulshan-e-Iqbal. “The block-wise maximum number of votes can not go beyond 2,700 to 2,800 votes but in Shanti Nagar over 7,000 are registered,” he said.
He added that incomplete and dubious addresses for the bogus voters had been mentioned as “District East”. “This would change the entire system,” he warned. The MQM member said his side was supporting the resolution so that all such mistakes are taken into account and corrected.
Sensing the atmosphere heating up, Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Khuhro was quick to put the draft to vote before the house which was unanimous in saying “yes”.
On a point of order, Dr Ahmed Ali Shah called for a strong check on the postmasters who, in certain provincial districts, were embezzling the financial aid being transferred through them to the poor people under the Benazir Income Support Programme.
While a privilege motion of Shehryar Mahar was deferred in the absence of PML-Q lawmaker, the speaker announced the Sindh Governor’s assent to the Sindh Irrigation (Amendment) Bill, 2011.
Also, the lawmakers thumped their desks to welcome a Turkish delegation in the house comprising the country’s Consul General and other parliamentarians.
Sindh Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla responded to supplementary and starred questions of the members during the Question Hour.
The house was adjourned until 10:00 am Thursday (today).