ISLAMABAD, Jan 8: The Election Commission of Pakistan has begun revision of electoral rolls and asked all those who have attained the voting age, 18 years, to get themselves registered as voters.

Election Commission Secretary Hasan Muhammad at a press conference said the annual revision of the voters' list had started and the people concerned should benefit from this.

He dispelled the impression that electoral rolls were being revised as the government was planning fresh polls. Under Article 219 of the Constitution, he said, it was the responsibility of the Election Commission to revise the voters' list every year.

The commission official said the voters list, which was prepared by Nadra, would be revised by the Election Commission itself and Nadra would not be involved in the exercise.

He said 507 judicial officers had been appointed as revising authorities after obtaining concurrence from the chief justices of the respective high courts for deciding claims, objections and applications for correction in the voters' list.

The secretary said 126 assistant election commissioners were working as district registration officers for their respective districts. The AECs are being assisted by 1,864 assistant registration officers drawn from different government departments.

He said that according to the revision programme, the existing electoral rolls had been displayed as draft electoral rolls at the offices of the revising authorities, registration officers, assistant registration officers and at a prominent place in each electoral area. These rolls will remain open to public inspection till Jan 22.

The secretary explained that all citizens of Pakistan, who have attained 18 years on Jan 1, 2004, and all those whose names did not appear in the existing electoral rolls, could file claims for inclusion of their names.

He said objections could be filed for the deletion of names of deceased voters or for deletion of any bogus entries, while correction of the existing entries could also be made by filling different forms.

He said claims, objections and applications for correction could be filed with the revising authorities, registration officers and assistant registration officers till Jan 22. The prescribed forms are available free of cost.

The secretary explained that the revising authorities would dispose of these claims, objections and applications for correction filed by due date, in accordance with the law, from Jan 23 to Feb 11.

The manuscript list of additions, deletions and corrections would then be prepared by the registration officer from Feb 12 to March 2, while finally revised electoral rolls would be displayed and published on March 8, 2004, for the information of the general public.

He urged the elected representatives, political workers, NGOs and general public to avail of this opportunity by inspecting draft electoral rolls at the display centres throughout the country.