The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is likely to miss the target of developing an error-free voter lists by the end of the current year as on Tuesday the ECP put off door-to-door verification of 80 million voters for 20 days.
Earlier, it was decided that the commission would begin the verification process from July 18 and complete it by August 16 but now the countrywide verification would begin on August 8 and would continued until September 17.
The decision was taken in a meeting held at the ECP Secretariat with Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Hamid Ali Mirza in the chair. It was attended by NADRA Chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem, Statistics Division Secretary Asif Bajwa, ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed and members of the ECP.
A source in the ECP told Pakistan Today that during the meeting it was decided that electoral rolls would be prepared on the basis of new census blocks, the number of which has increased to 145,000 from 105,000.
Upon this, the NADRA chairman said it involved additional practical work and required more time to print the draft electoral rolls therefore he sought revision of timelines earlier set by the ECP, the source said.
The NADRA chairman also gave a detailed briefing about the activities to be undertaken before the actual printing, the source said, adding that on the request of the NADRA chairman, the ECP decided to put off the verification process for 20 days.
The source said during the meeting, the statistics division secretary said Population Census Organisation would launch a population census exercise in September in accordance with the schedule and planned to impart training to enumerators for the purpose in the second week of September.
The source said the ECP asked to him to approach the Council of Common Interest (CCI) for considering the revision of population census and delaying it some weeks.
