KARACHI, Oct 2: The Karachi Coordination Committee (KCC) of the Pakistan People’s Party has urged the Chief Election Commissioner to restore the old electoral voter lists for the next general elections after updating them with the enlistment of new eligible voters.

The call came at a meeting of the KCC held on Monday at the Bilawal House with former defence minister Aftab Shaaban Mirani in the chair. Others who attended the meeting included Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Taj Haider, Prof N. D. Khan and Nafees Siddiqui.

The meeting noted that the procedure adopted for the preparation of the new voters’ list was unconstitutional and aimed at registering fake names to ensure victory of the ‘king’s party’. It recalled that in 1996, when the PPP had prepared a new voters’ list, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had obtained a Supreme Court order declaring this a violation of the Constitution.

It pointed out that the Constitution provided for only updating the electoral list, but the new regime had not only violated this provision in 2002 but resorted to doing the same thing again.

The KCC repeated its demand that the last date for the registration of voters in Sindh be extended to November 30 considering the devastation caused by monsoon rains across the province that had also left more than 50 per cent of eligible voters unregistered.

The KCC expressed grave concern over the rising number people going missing, believed to be picked up by security agencies. In this context, it appreciated Amnesty International, HRCP and other such organisations for releasing their reports on the kidnapping of political leaders, workers, journalists and other civil society activists by the state machinery.

The meeting noted that the government had itself admitted in the newspaper reports that it had adopted such unconstitutional and illegal methods to achieve its political and personal interests.

The meeting observed that security agencies’ questionable operation against its own people tormented hundreds of families because they were not being told about the whereabouts of the ‘kidnapped’ people.