950829

EC reviews

electoral roll

revision

arrangements

ISLAMABAD: Mr Justice (Retd) Sardar Fakhare Alam, Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan presided over a high level meeting of senior officers of Election Commission on Tuesday, to review the arrangements of fresh preparation of electoral rolls throughout the country.

Muhammad Hassan Bhutto, Secretary, Election Commission, senior officers of the Election Commission and four Provincial Election Commissioners participated in the meeting, says an Election Commission press release.

It may be recalled that the previous fresh preparation of electoral rolls took place in 986-87. During last eight years the rolls have been revised twice, i.e. during 1991 and 1994. Although the Constitutional provisions say that there should be annual revision of electoral rolls, yet annual revision could not take place in 1988 because of the elections.

In 1989, there were calamitous rains and in 1990 again the elections were announced. There were floods in 1992 and elections were again announced in 1993. During this period of about 8 years, many duplications have occurred in the rolls and due to the absence of proper procedure of making deletions, the electoral rolls could not be corrected properly.

The Government, in its Cabinet meeting on October, 10, 1994 suggested to the Election Commission of Pakistan to prepare the electoral rolls a fresh.

The Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan was kind enough to have agreed to the suggestions of the Government and decided to undertake this huge exercise of the fresh preparation of electoral rolls all over the country. Earlier a meeting, in this connection, was held on 21st June, 1995 wherein various assignments were given to the Provincial Election Commissioners, to prepare for undertaking this exercise.

In Tuesday's meeting, the Provincial Election Commissioners reported the progress of the various phases of preparation of electoral rolls. The appointments of District registration Officers, Registration Officers and Assistant Registration Officers in provinces have been made. The appointements of enumerators and supervisors, and the size population/area to be assigned to each enumerator, have been finalized. The progress of other administrative arrangements such as provision of transportation, pro curement of stationery items, printing of various kinds of forms was discussed. The Manual of Instructions for guidance of Registration Officers, etc., has been approved and sent to Prining Corporation of Pakistan Press for printing.

Similarly Manual of Instructions for Enumerators and Supervisors in Urdu and Sindhi has been approved and is under process of publication.-APP