ISLAMABAD, Aug 16: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to ensure that the enrolment of eligible women voters left out in the tribal belts and rural areas during the last updating of computerised electoral rolls and the registration of 20 million missing voters are completed within 30 days.

A five-member Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice M. Javed Buttar and Justice Sardar Raza Khan, took up a challenge by PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto against alleged irregularities in the draft electoral rolls.

The attention of the apex court towards a good number of missing votes of women from Fata and tribal areas of the NWFP and Balochistan was drawn by Advocate Shahid Hamid, representing the Pakistan Institute for Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), a non-governmental organisation.

He said the new electoral rolls had shown a sharp decline of 85 per cent in female voters in the frontier region as compared to the previous electoral rolls, adding that a similar decline had also been observed in other rural areas of Sindh and Balochistan.

The chief justice agreed that their names should be registered leaving away the concerns whether or not they caste their votes in the elections.

The bench suggested that the Election Commission should compare the recent computerised electoral rolls with the last voters’ list of 2002 and approach only those who were missing from the new list.The bench said that it did not want a new exercise for the registration of voters but was concerned only to the extent of missing voters.

The court expressed concern that the new exercise would cause burden on the public exchequer, which it said, was a serious matter. “Already Rs600 million has been spent on updating the computerised electoral rolls and another Rs200 million will be spent on the registration of missing voters.”

Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum said the USAID was extending financial assistance to the Election Commission in carrying out the exercise, adding that elections could not be postponed on the grounds that electoral rolls were incomplete. The chief election commissioner had shown commitment to follow the instructions of the apex court by revising the lists within the given time of 30 days, he said.

The AG also read out the proceedings of a meeting held last week by the election commissioner with the stakeholders and presented a six-page document containing suggestions and feedback from the political parties regarding the registration of voters.

The court rejected the excuse of the commission in respect of problems, logistics and transportation in different parts of the country.

Petitioner’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa and Farooq H. Naek argued that the exercise undertaken by the commission was not practical. “The commission cannot meet the entire population in a few days, especially when half of the country was inaccessible.”

However, the CJ explained that the Election Commission was not at fault in doing the new exercise since the court had ordered it to ensure the registration of missing voters.

The bench also directed the commission to provide copies of the new electoral rolls to the political parties and other stakeholders after completing the new exercise.

The bench adjourned the hearing for six weeks.