Elections cannot be delayed owing to errors in voter lists: CJ

Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heading a three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the next general elections could not be affected or delayed due to errors in the voter lists.
The bench had resumed hearing of a petition moved by Jamat-e-Islami Ameer Syed Munawwar Hasan, clubbed with petitions of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chief Imran Khan and Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s late chairperson Benazir Bhutto regarding preparation of fresh electoral lists.
The CJ said assistance of Army and the Frontier Corps (FC) could be sought in preparation of voter lists.
The counsels of the petitioners told the Supreme Court that the Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had assured the court on July 7, 2011 that the lists of the voters were being prepared and voters would be registered according to their present residential addresses.
The petitioners claimed that around one and a half million people were affected by errors in their residential addresses.
ECP Director General Sher Afzal told the apex court that following the court’s directions, authorised personnel were sent to visit people and verify their addresses.
However, he said if someone was not present at their residence at the time of the visit, their address was taken from the permanent address on their national identity card issued by Nadra.
The CJ said absence of a person from his residence did not allow the ECP to use their permanent address. “Unless a resident asks for it, you have no right to change his address,” he said and drew Afzal’s attention to Article 219 read with relevant sections of electoral legal provisions. He said that the vote of people should be registered back to the constituency where it was listed initially. He also added that the vote should be in accordance with the 2008 election. Counsel of Jamaat-i-Islami, Rasheed A Rizvi, told the apex court that in Karachi alone around one and a half million people’s votes had been registered to their permanent addresses as mentioned on their identity card.
Rizvi said that the provincial election commission was not cooperating with anyone. The CJ remarked that the task of completing voter lists was almost complete; however, the matter of errors in the addresses should be corrected on an emergency basis. The Supreme Court summoned a report from the ECP in this regard and adjourned the hearing till Thursday.