March 10, 2002	Sunday	Zilhaj 25, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, March 9: The Election Commission has asked the chief justices of high courts to set up some 518 revising authorities to remove complaints about electoral rolls to be published in April.

Speaking at a press briefing on Saturday, Chief Election Commissioner Irshad Hasan Khan said that Punjab, Sindh, NWFP, Balochistan, Fata and the federal capital would have 237, 131, 65, 58, 24, 3 revising authorities, respectively.

Although, he said, lower courts were already overburdened with cases the election commission had requested the provincial chief justices to make the required arrangement so that free, fair and impartial elections could be held in the country.

“Every eligible voter as well as political parties will be invited to register their objections on the electoral rolls, which will be put on internet with publicity through print as well as electronic media so that people could easily check their names,” he said, adding that within 21 days of lists’ publication people could contact to concerned revising authorities for errors.

Mr Khan, a retired chief justice, said that through an extensive and hectic campaign across the country the election commission had already collected data for electoral rolls and added that the election commission had given enough time to voters for sending their particulars.

Referring to the distribution of seats, Mr Khan quoted Article 51 (3) of Constitution which read “the seats in national assembly as well as provincial assemblies shall be allocated to each province, Fata and federal capital on the basis of population according to the last national census”.

Briefing about the de-limitation of constituencies, he said the election commission would follow the De-limitation Act, 1974, in this regard.

Referring to the act, which clearly explains that constituencies can be de-limited having regarded the geographically compactness and other facilities such as communication system of that area, he said the election commission would not allow interference by any other institution whatsoever in the de-limitation process and it would be done according to the provisions of law.

On the occasion, an official of the United Nations Development Programme made a presentation on the training programme for the coming elections. He said that $500 million had been earmarked for the training of about 600,000 election staff.

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