ISLAMABAD, March 3: The People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) is considering challenging the ongoing voters' registration process in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, it is learnt on Saturday.
Sources in the party told Dawn that some serious flaws had been found in the voters’ registration process. The issue of challenging the process had been under discussion at various party forums for the past few weeks, but the leadership had not been able to take a final decision due to a difference of opinion within the party on the issue, they said.
The sources said PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto had constituted a six-member committee to give recommendations to the party as to what strategy should be adopted to get the voters' list rectified. The committee, headed by Senator Sardar Latif Khosa, had been directed to send the report to Ms Bhutto by March 8. Other members of the committee are Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Dr Babar Awan, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Sherry Rehman and Palwasha Behram.
Talking to Dawn, Senator Khosa said he had convened the meeting of the six-member committee in Islamabad on Tuesday to finalise the recommendations to be sent to the leadership about the steps that should be taken by the party to ensure the names of all eligible voters in the list.
"Maybe we go for a constitutional petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution before the Supreme Court," Mr Khosa said.
He, however, said the issue of challenging the voters' registration process in the court would be discussed by the committee and final decision would only be taken by senior party leaders.
Mr Khosa said the party had collected complete data from various sources and come to know that names of some four million eligible voters were not present in the electoral rolls of 27 districts of Sindh alone.
He said the party had already apprised the chief election commissioner of its concerns. He said the CEC had stated that the lists would be completed in May. However, he said, the party believed that it should not wait for that time and take steps now to rectify it.
The PPP leader questioned the logic behind the decision of making fresh voters' list and called for updating the list used in the 2002 elections.
A senior PPP leader, on condition of anonymity, said there was a large group in the party which was opposed to the idea of taking the voters' list issue to court as they believed that the party would not be able to do anything if the court declared the process flawless.
