LAHORE, July 17: Following the promulgation of General Elections (Second Amendment) Order 2002 last month, revising authorities in 23 districts of the province have identified 31,965 voters as Ahmadis and ‘shifted’ them to a ‘separate’ list. Another 603 objections were overruled.

On June 17, the government had introduced an amendment that reads as: “If a person gets himself enrolled as a voter and an objection is filed before a Revising Authority notified under Electoral Rolls Act 1974, within 10 days after the issuance of the Conduct of General Elections (Second Amendment) Order 2002, that such a voter is not a Muslim, the Revising Authority shall issue a notice to him to appear before it within 15 days and require him to sign a declaration regarding his belief about the absolute and unqualified finality of the prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Form IV under the Electoral Rolls Act.”

It was further provided in the amendment order that “in case the person refuses to sign the declaration as aforesaid, he shall be deemed to be a non-Muslim and his name shall be deleted from the joint electoral area for being a non-Muslim.”

As revealed by the record available with the Punjab Election Commission not a single objection in this regard was lodged with the revising authorities in 11 districts — Lahore, Faislabad, Mianwali, Mandi Bahauddin, Okara, Multan, Khanewal, Vehari, Pakpattan, Muzzaffargarh and Rahim Yar Khan. There was also no objection raised against any voter by the July 12 in Islamabad.

Sources in the provincial election commission said the reason there were no objections in these districts could be the time and labour involved in screening manuscripts of the lists.

The ‘Ahmadi’ voters would be listed separately in the final lists.

The largest number of objections filed against ‘Ahmadi’ voters were in Jhang district where 23,296 objections were accepted and 65 rejected. Sialkot district was a distant second. All 3,238 objections there were sustained by the authorities.

The number of objections in the 11 other districts were there were no rejections was: Rawalpindi 38, Attock 6, Chakwal 331, Jhelum 263, Hafizabad 100, Gujrat 128, Narowal 243, Lodhran 27, Dera Ghazi Khan 41, Rajanpur 99 and Bahawalpur 183. There were no rejections.

The break-up in the remaining districts follows: Sargodha 1,818 accepted and 224 rejected, Khushab 89 and five, Bhakkar 59 and seven, Toba Tek Singh 257 and four, Gujranwala 497 and six, Sheikhupura 493 and 158, Kasur 118 and 40, Sahiwal 328 and 82, Layyah 298 and two and Bahwalnagar 15 and 10.