Electoral rolls cannot be finalised before May: 'Supreme Court order tantamount to violation of constitution'

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday said the Supreme Court's order to stop by-elections was tantamount to violation of constitution as the commission was legally bound to hold elections within a stipulated period of 60 days. Addressing to a news conference, Secretary Election Commission Ishtiaq Ahmad said that the commission was bound to arrange elections within 60 days.
Although, grant of a stay on by-polls was a violation of the constitution, the commission would honour the apex court's order. The secretary said that the apex court was requested that the lists would be ready by May, 2012. In addition to voter lists, he said dozens of other measures were needed to ensure transparent elections. He said the next elections would be held on the basis of previous constituencies.
He said the commission believed that the entire work on electoral rolls would be completed in the next five to six months. Soon commission would launch an SMS facility which would allow every voter to verify the registration of his vote in his respective constituency.
Next month, he said, electoral rolls would be on display at 65000 places for three weeks, which is a constitutional requirement. In case of objections, these would be sent back to NADRA. He said work was to be completed by January, 2012 but due to rains, dengue virus and other reasons, it could not be accomplished. In reply to a question, the secretary said the SC had played an important role to strengthening of Election Commission and they could not even imagine violate the apex court's directives.
Giving details of the consultative meeting with political parties, Ishtiaq said that 11 out of 14 political parties attended the Monday's meeting. He further said the report of the consultative meeting would also be shared with the apex court. He maintained that they achieved 14 out of 15 targets in the past two years. In collaboration with NADRA, he said, the names of 37 million fake voters were deleted while the names of 36 million genuine voters added to the lists.
Earlier, during a meeting of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and political parties, Chief Election Commissioner Hamid Ali Mirza said that new electoral rolls for the next general election cannot be finalised before May this year. Mirza explained why the commission was unable to comply with Supreme Court's order to finalise electoral rolls by February 23. Mirza said the responsibilities of every institution are chalked out clearly in the Constitution, and unnecessary interference of institutions results in anarchy. He added that the task of finalising new electoral rolls should remain with the ECP without interference from any institution.
He also said that if the electoral rolls were not finalised as per the law then it will be held against the Constitution. He said it was the responsibility of the Election Commission to hold by-elections on time as a constitutional requirement. He said it was not possible to complete the electoral lists by February 23 and that two reports had been submitted to the Supreme Court in this regard.
Pakistan Muslim League-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Syed, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, Nayyar Bukhari of PPP, Liaquat Baloch of Jamaat-i-Islami, Hashim Babar of ANP and MQM's Iqbal Qadri attended the consultative meeting with the representatives of civil society and media.