Updated on
Summary ECP directs NADRA to update final electoral rolls every month.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (Retd) Fakhar ud Din G Ibrahim has summoned an important meeting on 6th and 7th September to discuss the upcoming elections.According to the sources, the meeting has been convened to review the preparations for the upcoming elections while the meeting of all political parties will also be summoned at the last week of this month.All the four members of the ECP would brief the CEC and shall hand over a report.Sources further said that during the meeting several options regarding preparations of elections would come under discussion and the proposals of the NAB will also be reviewed to conduct corruption free elections.Meanwhile, ECP has asked National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) to update Final Electoral Rolls (FER-12) by adding 781,73 voters, who were issued CNIC after printing of FER-12 on May 31st, 2012, NADRA spokesperson stated this in a statement issued here.NADRA has received directions from ECP that names of new CNIC holders will be enrolled as voters on monthly basis after verifying their physical presence through door to door verification; however in first instance all new CNICs which were issued by NADRA during the month of June 2012, July 2012 & August 2012 will be included in FER 2012.Clarifying the confusion generated by some media reports about difference in number of CNICs issued, she said according to Economic Survey of Pakistan (derived from National Institute of Population Studies-NIPS), the Population of Pakistan in year 2012 is estimated as 180.71 million and the adult: minor ratio of Pakistan is 51.25, meaning hereby the adult (18 years and above) population of Pakistan is 92.61 million, excluding AJK and GB. Since its inception in year 2000, NADRA has issued 91,379,788 CNICs to adult citizens who are also eligible as voters.While elaborating the difference between CNICs issued and voter list she said around 7 million cards have been issued to citizens of AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan which do not reflect in Final Electoral Rolls (FER-12) as these citizens are not eligible to vote in general elections in Pakistan and they have separate Election Commission.2,368,393 CNICs issued to AJK citizens who are not resident of Pakistan, do not qualify eligibility criteria of being voter according to section 7 of Electoral Rolls Act, 1974.Moreover, 576,474 CNICs are issued to GB residents and 1,987,225 CNICs holders are deceased according to Civil Registration Management System (CRMS) and NADRA death records while 250,029 individuals are NICOP holders (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis) and their both addresses are of foreign country, both are not included in total count of 84.365 million of FER.She added that 17,384 CNIC holders have surrendered their nationality and have obtained POC (Pakistan Origin Card) and 548,568 records are under verification. Once their due verification process is complete, such records will become eligible for induction in voter’s list. Meanwhile, 484,918 CNIC were forwarded to ECP for verification but were Not verified hence not registered as voter.She added that NADRA understands that there are segments of uncovered population mainly women. Although, NADRA has extended its registration services to the door steps of citizens through its mobile registration units and has established women only Data Acquisition Centers and has made issuance of CNIC a free of cost activity, yet the registration gap can be linked to the social norms and motivation factor due to which a citizen feels requirement to apply for CNIC.She added that a comprehensive community mobilization campaign by political parties, civil society and print/electronic media can increase the registration of marginalized cadre.NADRA is ready to go extra mile for registering any eligible citizen. She added that as already mentioned, any individual who obtains CNIC before announcement of General Elections will be enrolled as voter only after proper verification of concerned Registration Officer of ECP. She added that some segments of civil society have estimated adult population as 104.94 Million which does not represent the factual position.
