ELECTION COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN MEETS IN CONNECTION WITH CONSTITUTION PETITION NO.45/2007(MOHATARMA BENAZIR BHUTTO VS. CHIEF ELECTION COMMISIONER OF PAKISTAN AND OTHERS.
Islamabad, the 1st August, 2007.- A Meeting of the Election Commission was held at 11:00 AM on the 1st August, 2007 in the ECP Secretariat, Islamabad under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice (R) Qazi Muhammad Farooq, Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner, which was attended by the learned Members Election Commission, Mr. Justice Nasim Sikandar, Judge, Lahore High Court and Mr. Justice Ahmed Khan Lashari, Judge, High Court of Balochistan. Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, Federal Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan was also present.
2. The Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner apprised Members of the Election Commission of the situation arisen out of the Order, dated the 26th July, 2007 passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the said Constitution Petition. Thereafter, the Hon’ble CEC discussed with the learned Members the methodology for implementing the Order of the Apex Court.
3. After due deliberations and taking into consideration all pros and cons of the issue, the Election Commission accorded approval to the following extent:
(i) A Summary be sent to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for approval by the President of the proposal to the effect that provisions of Rule 3(1) of the Electoral Rolls Rules, 1974 to the extent that Form-I for the Electoral Rolls containing the number of National Identity Card of each voter shall be omitted, as no such provision exists in the main law viz: Section 6 of the Electoral Rolls Act, 1974.
(ii) The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs be informed that the provisions of Section 18 (1) of the Electoral Rolls Act, 1974 as well as Section 33 (1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1976 may be suitably amended respectively to exclude from Section 18(1) the condition of production of CNIC before the Registration Officer for the purpose of enrolment as voter and to insert in Section 33 (1) the words “or any other proof of identity” in addition to the production of NIC at the time of casting vote by a voter or as deemed appropriate by the legislature for the purpose of registration of a person as voter in the Electoral Rolls and for proving identity of an elector at the time of casting his/her vote on the day of Poll.
(iii) The Schedule for undertaking exercise of entering names of all such persons who could not be enrolled as voters for the reason that they were not in possession of NICs during the Enrolment Process for Computerized Electoral Rolls, 2006-07 was approved with the directions that all arrangements involved in the door-to-door enumeration process as well as stages involved for the purpose be completed, accordingly