PESHAWAR, Aug 18: The Election Commission has asked the provincial governments to ensure the availability of teaching staff for another countrywide drive to enrol unregistered but eligible voters.

A letter sent by the EC secretary to the NWFP chief secretary said the EC, as per a Supreme Court order, intended to initiate an exercise throughout the country for registering the names of eligible voters in 30 days.

The EC secretary said the commission was again engaging the teaching staff as enumerators or assistant registration officers for the door-to-door enumeration work.

The chief secretary has been requested to issue the necessary instructions to heads of educational institutions in the province to ensure availability of the teaching staff who had been appointed for the job earlier too. The provincial government has been requested to cancel the leave of such teachers.

The EC secretary reminded that as per Article 220 of the Constitution, it was the duty of the executive authorities to assist the Election Commission in discharging its functions.