July 19, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 22, 1427

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RAWALPINDI, July 18: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has started work on preparation of voter list and house census in Rawalpindi as a part of the next general election.

Official sources told Dawn on Tuesday that ECP has appointed 42 assistant officers across the eight towns of the district and the cantonment area has been divided into 10 sectors with 10 assistant regulation officers (AROs).

According to details, Rawalpindi city has been divided into 13 sectors and 13 AROs have been appointed in this regard.

Sources said that six AROs for Potohar Town, three for Taxila, five for Gujar Khan, one each for Kahuta and Kalar Syeddan, and two AROs for Murree have been appointed.

A staff of 1,506 teachers and 502 supervisors have been constituted for conducting house census after undergoing 15 days training from June 13-28.

Staff members have been asked to finalise the census from July 14 to 28 across the district. From July 29 to September 11 the staff would submit the data to AROs for authenticity.

After verification, the AROs have been asked to feed the detailed data and information to the election commission from October 7, 2006 to January 2007.

The voter list would be displayed at various places in the city from January 20-22.

JONAID IQBAL ADDS: A door-to-door campaign is being launched from July 29 to distribute registration forms among women for their enrolment in voters list.

This was stated by Deputy Election Commissioner Iftikhar Shah in a meeting on “Strengthening electoral process through awareness”, arranged by the Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP) here on Tuesday.

He said the FPAP had titled the project as Rahnuma. The association’s representatives are expected to visit every house and distribute registration forms, seek cooperation from women as well as urge them to enlist their names in the voters list for the next general elections.

Mr Shah informed the meeting that the project, aimed at ensuring women participation in the electoral process, had been assigned to the FPAP under an arrangement with the Election Commission of Pakistan and help from the UNDP because it was felt that a large number of women continue to be left out of the electoral process.

It was a matter of regret that a large number of women either abstain from voting because they did not have identity cards or fail to get their names registered in the voters list, the deputy election commissioner remarked.

The new project has been launched to rectify the error, and help of a number of NGOs has been sought for preparation of the new electoral roll with more women voters.