ECP ALL SET TO PREPARE COMPUTERIZED ELECTORAL ROLLS ON CNIC BASIS
Islamabad, the 30th March 2011.- Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would prepare Computerized Electoral Rolls-2011 on Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) basis in collaboration with NADRA according to the new Census Blocks devised by Census Organization. Ground work for preparation of Computerized Electoral Rolls for obtaining data about new census blocks and house-heads will start, parallel to the house-listing by the Census Organization, from 5th April 2011.
It was decided in a high-level meeting, held under the Chairmanship of Mr. Ishtiak Ahmed Khan, Secretary, ECP that was attended by the Secretary Statistics Division, Asiff Bajwa, Chairman NADRA, Ali Arshad Hakeem and their technical teams including senior officers of the ECP.
The Secretary, ECP said that it is imperative and need of the day to devise a foolproof system to eliminate any possibility of bogus entries in the electoral rolls. In the first phase of preparation of Computerized Electoral Roll-2011, the existing Electoral Rolls-2007 data has been shared with NADRA and NADRA has successfully completed verification and augmentation of Electoral Rolls-2007 data. He also said that the preparation of accurate computerized electoral rolls is a demand of all the political parties, civil society, media and the entire nation as it provides a basis for credible, free and fair elections.
In the meeting, it was unanimously decided that the ECP will obtain Census Blocks and House-heads data with the help of enumerators, hired by the Census Organization for this purpose, from 5th April, 2011 and on the basis of this data, detailed door-to-door enumeration will be started in June, 2011.
For this purpose, enumerators and supervisors will be paid Rs.2500/- and Rs.3500/- respectively by the ECP. Letters about necessary instructions alongwith Form to be filled by these enumerators have been issued to all the ECP’s District Offices for early completion of this important national task.
The Secretary, ECP also told that Bill regarding declaring CNIC as mandatory for registration of vote has been passed by the Senate on 29th March 2011 and the new computerized Electoral Rolls-2011 will now be prepared on the basis of CNIC only.
The Chairman NADRA and Secretary, Statistics Division assured all out support, full coordination and cooperation to the ECP at all levels including Provincial as well as at District level for achieving the national cause of preparation of error-free accurate electoral rolls.