ISLAMABAD, Aug 13: Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi on Monday expressed doubts that fair elections could be held in the country on the basis of electoral rolls being currently updated.

Answering a question in the National Assembly, he said that the time given by the apex court for registering 30 million voters was inadequate.

He also expressed the fear that in the absence of a mechanism to ascertain the identity of voters, under-age people could get themselves registered as voters. He said there was also a possibility of duplication because the voters’ list was being updated under a crash programme on the directives of the Supreme Court.

He said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had sought 140 days for door-to-door enumeration, but the request was turned down by the court and the ECP now had only 30 days to register the 30 million missing voters.

At one stage, Mr Niazi justified the difference of 20 million eligible voters between the new electoral rolls and the voters’ lists of 2002, saying that it was due to the bogus entries made in the past and lack of people’s interest in getting computerised national identity cards. He said that it was estimated that some 10 million people had attained the age of 18 years since the 2002 general elections.

He rejected an assertion that people were not registering themselves due to concerns about rigging in the coming elections.

Treasury bench member Ali Akbar Wains said the apex court’s judgment meant that the ECP would have to register at least one million voters a day, which was impossible. He predicted clashes at many places during the elections, followed by allegations of rigging.

Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain observed that “these difficulties had been brought to the notice of the court, but we cannot comment on it”. However, Mr Wains said: “Is it not a sovereign house? Can it not legislate against the Supreme Court ruling?” The speaker said that even a judgment rendered by a civil judge had to be abided by.

“The Election Commission has committed itself to completing the enumeration process in one month and, hence, it is not our headache. We have to concede,” Mr Niazi said.

Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal leader Liaquat Baloch accused the government of deliberately creating hindrances in the way of preparing authentic electoral rolls. He said the record of all eligible voters was in Nadra’s database and if a decision at the government level was taken to allow its use, comprehensive electoral rolls could be made.

People’s Party Parliamentarians leader Zumarrad Khan suggested the tabling of a joint bill seeking punishment for people found casting bogus votes. The speaker said that this was already a culpable offence.

PPP leader Naheede Khan underlined the need for coordination between the ECP and Nadra. She called for a procedure whereby every person having attained the age of 18 would automatically get enlisted as a voter.

Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali observed: “We could not even purge the house of bogus members holding fake degrees, so it is not proper for us to blame institutions and talk about bogus votes”.