ECP APPROVES 1 MONTH EXTENSION IN VERIFICATION PROCESS TO ENSURE ACCURACY AND INCLUSIVENESS OF ALL ELIGIBLE VOTERS
Islamabad the 29th September, 2011: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) today decided to extend the ongoing country-wide campaign for verification of Electoral Rolls-2011 for one month duration. The ECP met under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner Mr. Justice (R) Hamid Ali Mirza and attended by four Hon’ble Members Election Commission of Pakistan, namely, Justice (Retd) Muhammad Roshan Essani, Justice (Retd) Riaz Kayani, Justice (Retd) Shazad Akbar Khan and Justice (Retd) Fazal-ur-Rehman besides Chairman NADRA, Mr Ali Arshad Hakeem; Chief Census Commissioner, Mr. Habibullah Khan; Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan, Mr. Ishtiak Ahmad Khan, all Provincial Election Commissioners (PECs) and other senior officers of the ECP.
Keeping in view the requests made by legislatures of Sindh and KPK Assemblies, recent floods in Sindh Province, law and order situation in parts of Balochistan and KPK, and dengue fever in Punjab Province, the Commission approved to extend the completion date of the verification process of Electoral Rols-2011 by one month to obtain accuracy and ensure credibility. Meanwhile, all the four PECs informed that almost 70% verification process has been completed in all over the country and only 30% verification is yet to be completed mostly in calamity hit and troubled areas of Sindh, KPK and Balochistan.
The Secretary, ECP Mr. Ishtiak Ahmad Khan drew attention of the citizens to the significance of door to door verification exercise being carried out with the help of more than two lakh verification officials throughout the country to make all possible efforts to ensure 100 percent coverage of all the houses as well as the voters for preparation of a complete and accurate voters list to ensure free, fair, transparent, and credible elections in Pakistan for all times to come and thus underlined the need for all the political parties and the voters to extend full cooperation to make this exercise a success.
Mr. Ishtiak Ahmad Khan also expressed his gratitude to the honourable teachers involved in the door-to-door verification exercise who have always performed this task of national importance with dedication and passion and appealed to them to complete the ongoing verification exercise as well with same zeal, especially when this is going to be the last verification exercise as thereafter the ECP is making arrangements with NADRA for continuous updating of the voter list in light of issuance of new CNICs in the future.