Supreme Court rejects plea for time extension to update voter lists

The Supreme Court has declined to extend the one month's time limit for registration of the missing voters in the electoral rolls.
A five-member larger bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar and Justice Javed Buttar held further hearing of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto's plea that nearly 30 million voters had been disfranchised through the new electoral lists.
Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum requested the court to extend the time limit till October 4 to finalise the electoral lists. The counsel for the petitioner, Sardar Latif Khosa, argued that the plan prepared by the Election Commission to update the lists is impracticable.
The counsel for Pildat, Shahid Hamid, informed the court that a large number of voters in Fata and NWFP have not been registered for 2007 general elections. The court adjourned the hearing for six weeks and directed the Election Commission to enrole voters in Fata and NWFP on priority basis.