Political parties claim 30 million not registered wilfully

Political parties are of the view that Election Commission (EC) has wilfully not listed 30 million voters in the electoral rolls 2007. This move, tantamount to postponement of elections.
This consensus view of six political parties; PML (N), PPP, National Party, Awami National Party, Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Party and PTI at "Roundtable discussion on Preliminary voters' list." organised by National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in collaboration with the Centre for Civic education Pakistan here on Wednesday.
Political parties still demand the fresh voters' list. But EC has declined to facilitate them in this regard. They demand of the government to reconstitute the Election Commission (EC) and conduct audit of 2 million dollar funds, provided by the foreign donors for the registration of voters. They alleged that EC has adopted various tactics to hinder the process of voters' registration and amendment of new electoral rolls.
On June 13, the Election Commission displayed electoral rolls at 45,403 display centres across the country to shortcomings in 21 days. But the process of amendment is so cumbersome that cannot be carried out in short span of time. These display centres do not cover the whole country. Akram Shah, Secretary General, Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Party, told that in Balochistan his constituency lacked display centre.
During the display period public awareness campaign for the registration of votes has not been carried out systematically. It resulted in misconception and voters in the lists of 2002 did not approach the authorities to confirm their names, most of them are missing.
The Election Commission also made it obligatory to have a 'Computerised National Identity Card' (CNIC) by Nadra for the registration of a vote.
Sardar Latif Khosa from PPP said, "according to Article 51, sub-section 2 of the constitution every Pakistani who have attained the age of 18 have the right to vote and CNIC is not necessary for it."
According to the projection of statistics division population having the age of 18 should exceed 82 million in 2007. He questioned the performance of Nadra, why it has not issued CNICs to the people attaining the age of 18. Without the registration of votes democracy cannot flourish in the country, he added. Ms Farzana Raja from PPP, told that 90 percent women of Fata, 41 percent of Sindh, 37 percent of Punjab and 19 percent women of Islamabad have not been added to the voters' lists.