GUJRAT: An official survey has identified as many as 35,000 women in the district who don’t have computerised national identity cards (CNICs) and are not listed as voters in Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) record despite attaining the minimum age of 18 years required for the purposes.

These women have been detected in a recent survey conducted in the district by the ECP as a joint venture with National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) and some non-government organisations (NGOs).

District Election Commissioner Imran Zafar told Dawn that so far some 2,000 of these women, had been registered with Nadra and issued CNICs.

He claimed the rest of these identified women were also being facilitated in getting their CNICs at the Nadra facilitation centres. After getting the CNICs they would be registered as voters prior to the upcoming general elections, he claimed.

He said a ‘gender wing’ set up at the ECP was continuously working for registration of women voters across the country that often conducted such surveys to identify unregistered voters.

Mr Zafar said the ECP was going to launch a 30-day campaign from March 26 for registration, verification and correction of votes. At least 58 display centres had been established across the district for the purpose, he added.

These centres had also been set up at educational institutions, besides the district election commissioner office to facilitate people in getting themselves registered as voters.

He said those approaching these centres would be provided Form 58 for registration of new votes, Form 16 for the objections to votes and Form 17 for correction of name and addressed in the ECP’s voters list.

He said the ECP had also been advertising through the media that one anyone could verify his or her vote by sending a text message bearing CNIC number to 8300.

He said the assistant commissioners of all the three tehsils of the district had been appointed as revising authority to which the applicants would submit their forms and they would give a personal hearing to them.

Mr Zafar said after the 30-day drive, the ECP would revise the voters lists in the light of the ACs decision.

He said the government schools teachers had been appointed as the in charge of the display centres who would be paid honorarium by the ECP for doing the task.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2018