NADRA spokeswoman said on Monday that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) to update Final Electoral Rolls (FER-12) by adding 781,735 voters who were issued CNIC after printing of FER-12 on May 31.
NADRA had received directions from ECP that names of new CNIC holders would be enrolled as voters on monthly basis after verifying their physical presence through door to door verification; however in first instance all new CNICs which were issued by NADRA during the month of June 2012, July 2012 & August 2012 would be included in FER 2012.
In an attempt to clarify the confusion generated by some media reports about difference in the number of CNICs issued, the spokeswoman said that according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan (derived from National Institute of Population Studies-NIPS), the population of Pakistan in year 2012 was estimated at 180.71 million and the adult: minor ratio of Pakistan was 51.25, meaning hereby that the adult (18 years and above) population of Pakistan was 92.61 million, excluding Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). Since its inception in the year 2000, NADRA had issued 91,379,788 CNICs to adult citizens who were also eligible as voters.
While elaborating the difference between CNICs issued and voter list, the spokeswoman said around 7 million cards had been issued to citizens of AJK and GB which do not reflect in the Final Electoral Rolls (FER-12) as these citizens were not eligible to vote in general elections in Pakistan and they had a separate Election Commission. 2,368,393 CNICs issued to AJK citizens who were not residents of Pakistan, do not qualify eligibility criteria of being voter according to section 7 of Electoral Rolls Act, 1974.
Moreover, 576,474 CNICs were issued to GB residents and 1,987,225 CNICs holders were deceased according to the Civil Registration Management System (CRMS) and NADRA death records while 250,029 individuals were NICOP holders (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis) and both their addresses were of foreign country, and both were not included in the total count of 84.365 million of FER.
She added that 17,384 CNIC holders had surrendered their nationality and had obtained POC (Pakistan Origin Card) and 548,568 records were under verification. She said that once their due verification process was complete, such records would become eligible for induction into the voter’s list. Meanwhile, 484,918 CNIC were forwarded to ECP for verification but were “Not verified” hence not registered as voter. She added that NADRA understood that there were segments of uncovered population mainly women. Although, NADRA had extended its registration services to the door steps of citizens through its mobile registration units and had established women only Data Acquisition Centers and had made issuance of CNIC a free of cost activity, yet the registration gap could be linked to the social norms and motivation factor due to which a citizen feels requirement to apply for CNIC.
She also said that a comprehensive community mobilization campaign by political parties, civil society and print/electronic media could increase the registration of marginalized cadre. NADRA was ready to go the extra mile for registering any eligible citizen. She added that as already mentioned any individual who obtained a CNIC before announcement of the general elections would be enrolled as voter only after proper verification of concerned registration officer of ECP.
