HYDERABAD, June 24: The Hyderabad Grand Alliance (HGA) on Sunday demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should extend the last date for registration of voters from July 3 to Sept 3 to give an opportunity to the people, whose names were not the new voter lists, to get themselves registered.

HGA Convenor Abdur Rehman Rajput, who is an MPA and leader of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, said at a news conference at the press club that the date should be extended to ensure impartial and transparent elections.

He called for the appointment of an independent election commission under the supervision of Supreme Court of Pakistan, dissolution of national and provincial assemblies and establishment of an interim government comprising members of the parliament with the chairman of senate as president.

He demanded that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement should be banned to avoid the kind of bloodshed during elections as the city had experienced on May 12 in Karachi.

The extent of errors in the lists could be gauged from the fact that even the name of former prime minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali and his family members as well as the name of former chief justice of Supreme Court, Syed Sajjad Ali Shah, were not on the lists, he said.

Mr Rajput said that despite being an MPA his own name could not make it to the new lists. So did the names of the family members of MNA Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair, he said and charged that the coalition partner of federal and Sindh governments had seen to it that their opponents’ names were deleted from the lists in Hyderabad.

On the contrary, the names of MQM supporters were registered in more than one constituency, he said claiming that the voter lists in Hyderabad were prepared by MQM supporters when the teachers who were tasked to prepare them were on strike.

He said that the procedure to get ones’ name registered had been made so cumbersome that it was almost impossible to complete legal formalities on time. Those who approached courts to get their names registered as per rules were given July 4 date while the last date for names’ registration was July 3.

He argued that had the lists been prepared at union council level, the chances of errors would have been minimised to a great extent and it would also have facilitated Nadra to maintain a permanent record.

Mr Rajput said that the lists were published at a time when the elected members of the national and provincial assemblies and senate were busy in budget sessions and unable to check them.

SCA: Senior vice-president of Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Mir Murad Ali Khan Talpur, demanded on Sunday that the president and prime minister should ensure implementation of their directives.

Speaking at a chamber’s meeting he said that when the government reduced prices of DAP fertiliser the DAP completely disappeared from the market.

The meeting supported the protest of the growers of Badin and expressed grave concern over the recovery of 10 per cent commission by the brokers of dates in Sukkur and Khairpur.