Sherry Rahman, MNA, has asked for correction of voters' lists that disenfranchised more than 20 million voters. In a statement, PPP information secretary said the controversial list had caused resentment in the country, and has upset stakeholders, candidates and political parties.
Even independent analysts feel that 30 million names were missing from the new list that enlists 52 million, whereas the 2002 election had 72 million voters. According to experts, the new lists should have 82 million enlisted voters stipulating the population growth rate of 2.7 percent per annum and the entry of a fresh batch of 18-year teenagers.
Sherry Rahman blamed the Election Commission of Pakistan for refusing to comply with the requests to provide political parties with electronic copies of the lists to enable political parties to make independent check of the lists.
She said this refusal had left political parties with little choice to check the lists, which even otherwise is an impossible task, and demanded the ECP to direct the government and Nadra to issue free computerised ID cards but wondered if the ECP could reduce the daunting gap of 30 million missing voters.
'It took no less than five years for Nadra to issue 50 million CNICs', she said.
She asked why people are deprived of their democratic right to vote. The government had failed in ensuring 100 percent distribution of the CNICs, when they had been at the job since the last five years?" Rahman also pointed out that the ECP enrolled all eligible voters computerised by expert systems that were also the consultants to Nadra.
Expert systems took the Nadra record and deleted all eligible voters who did not have the ID cards rather than seeking ways to enhance the voters' base, the ECP worked on ways to eliminate voters, she concluded.