The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) expressed its apprehension regarding the manipulation of the voters' lists and called it part of the government's plan for pre-poll rigging. The party vowed to challenge the alleged manipulation in the voters' lists in the Supreme Court.
Latif Khosa, chairman of the PPP's Election Monitoring Cell, told newsmen on Wednesday that the decrease in the number of the voters in the new lists as compared to the lists of 2002 pointed to the government's intention for pre-poll rigging.
He said that the number of voters should have increased with the increasing number of youngsters maturing, instead it has decreased by 22 million. He said the PPP had established the cell to monitor the government's steps regarding the upcoming elections.
He said he would meet the representatives of the Chief Election Commission of Pakistan to discus the party's apprehensions and if their apprehensions were not removed, the party would file a case in the Supreme Court. Khosa said that the requirement for a national identity card (NIC) for registration of voters was unnecessary since Article 51 of the Constitution did not provide any such compulsion.
He said it was absurd because daily wagers could not be expected to sacrifice a day's income for making the NICs. He said the government should ensure the provision of NICs at people's doorsteps. PPP's Member of Punjab Assembly Dr Javed Siddiqui said that in his constituency, Multan, the new voters' lists indicated a one-third decrease of voters.
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