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ISLAMABAD: Around 2.2 million more ballot papers were printed for constituencies of the National Assembly (NA) than for those of provincial assemblies (PAs) in the 2013 general elections, an official document has revealed.
According to the document, a copy of which has been obtained by Dawn, 92.06m ballot papers were printed for the NA constituencies and 89.86m for the PA constituencies.
The biggest difference was in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 14.48m papers were printed for the NA polls and 12.7m for the PA elections, marking a difference of 1.77m.
When contacted, an official of the Election Commission of Pakistan said the printing of additional ballot papers for the NA constituencies was not surprising.
“Over 600,000 voters of the federal capital and more than 1.7m electorates of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) do not vote for provincial assembly candidates.”
As many as 684,200 ballot papers were printed for the two NA constituencies in Islamabad.
The official said the figure for the ballot papers printed for KP included the ones used in Fata. “Otherwise, the difference between the number of ballot papers printed for the national and provincial assemblies was minor.”
Citing the example of Punjab, he said 53.68m ballot papers had been printed for NA constituencies in the province and 53.65m for the PA constituencies there.
In case of Balochistan, 1,000 more papers were printed for the PA polls than for the NA elections. He said the number was almost the same with 3.72m papers each being printed for the NA and the PA seats.
In Sindh 19.49m ballots were printed for the NA polls and 19.78m for the PA elections.
According to the document, Rs1.75 billion was spent on the printing of ballot papers for the 2013 polls.
The Printing Corporation of Pakistan, which printed over 109m papers at its facilities in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, was paid over Rs1bn.
The Pakistan Security Printing Corporation, which printed 72m papers in Karachi, was paid Rs754m.
Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2015
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