The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Election Commission of Pakistan to consider the registration of voters in Karachi in accordance with electoral rules. The three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued the directives on a constitutional petition filed by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and Jamat-e-Islami regarding renewal of electoral lists.
The apex court directed the Election Commission to contact the voters at their residence seeking their preferences about their permanent addresses. The petitioners, in their petition, had contended that the EC had transferred around three million voters of Karachi to different areas, questioning the authority under which the EC took the decision.
The court observed that it was practically impossible for the voters to cast their votes in the new constituency, located far from their current residential address. The Chief Justice exemplified his own vote that had been transferred to Quetta. He was endorsed by the petitioner's counsel, whose vote had also been transferred to his native area whereas he was currently residing in Karachi. Later, the court adjourned the case till Thursday directing the Secretary Election Commission to appear in person.
BR staff reporter adds: The Supreme Court accepted the concerns of Pakistan People's Party, Jamaat-i-Islami and Tehreek-e-Insaf's over shifting of a number of voters' names from Karachi to other provinces and directed the ECP to examine the matter about the registration of voters on the consent of people in Karachi.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing of the case of fresh electoral list and said in its order that there were credible complaints and that the ECP, subject to all just exceptions, could also examine the possibility of reversing the names of voters back to Karachi. The bench further said that such voters should be given an option to transfer their votes if they so desired to any other town or city of Pakistan, by making a request to the respective representative of ECP before the announcement of the schedule of the general election.
The court has sent the copy of this November 21 order to the Secretary ECP so that he could depute a senior officer along with the Deputy Attorney General to appear in the court to satisfy it today (Thursday) as to under what circumstances, the names of about more than three million voters have been shifted from Karachi to other towns/cities of Pakistan.
Earlier, Khalid Anwar, during the proceedings of Reko Diq case, also told the bench that as many as 3 million voters in Karachi would be disenfranchised if they were not allowed to vote in Karachi only on the basis that the addresses in their CNICs were of the places of their origin.
During the course of hearing, the counsel for PTI, Hamid Khan, told the bench that his party had conducted a survey in nine districts of the country to verify new electoral lists. He contended that according to credible information, Election Commission had failed to touch 100 percent voters. According to him, the ECP electoral staff could approach only 10 percent of Karachi's population because the situation in the megapolis is not good.
Upon this, the court has observed that they could not allow ECP to initiate a new process in the country for removing the errors from the lists. He said though the ECP had registered his vote in Quetta on the basis of his permanent address, he was much happy in this regard.
Meanwhile, Rana M. Shamim, the counsel for a petitioner Irfan ullah Marwat of PML-N, told the bench that his client was residing in Karachi and he was the candidate for next general election, adding that he alleged that MQM workers had hijacked the ECP staffs who shifted the people's votes without their consent. Rana further said that his vote had also been transferred to his permanent address in Punjab. He submitted different documents showing that a good number of votes of the residents of Karachi had been shifted to places such as Mansehra, Attock.
Rashid A. Rizvi, the counsel for JI, supported the point raised by PTI's counsel Hamid Khan. According to him, it would not be possible at this stage to revise all the electoral lists. He also said that the court in its Worker Party case had directed the ECP to verify the fresh electoral list through a door-to-door campaign.
PPP senior leader Jehanghir Badar also supported the contentions raised by the other petitioners and requested that an appropriate order be passed for the rectifying/correction in the Electoral lists in Karachi. Deputy Attorney General Ali Zai on behalf of the ECP requested the court to give sometime to examine this matter. The hearing of the case was adjourned till November 22.
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