KARACHI, March 18: Describing the preliminary electoral rolls as ‘bogus’, participants in an all parties conference (APC) convened by the Jamaat-i-Islami on Sunday called upon the president and the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of the “sensitive issue” because fair and transparent elections could not be held without genuine electoral rolls.

They made this demand in a joint communiqué adopted by the APC held at the Idara Noor-i-Haq on “Bogus voters lists — preparations of engineered elections”.

The meeting was presided over by JI Karachi chief Mohammed Hussain Mehanti.

Expressing their suspicions and reservations about the voter lists and demarcation of constituencies, the meeting participants claimed that the entire process of preparing ‘bogus’ electoral rolls was aimed at maintaining a monopoly of a party on Karachi.

They demanded fresh preparation of the electoral rolls on the basis of National Database and Registration Authority lists.

They also demanded that voter lists were posted on official websites and their CDs were given to political parties.

They also sought an extension of a month to carry out corrections in the lists and demanded that the SMS service was made toll-free and the correction procedure made simple.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Mehanti said that transparent elections were the real spirit of democracy.

He alleged that names of voters living in one area of Karachi were shown in other areas to provide benefit to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazal’s Qari Mohammed Usman said that 35 per cent of voters having ancestral home addresses in other provinces had been removed from the rolls in Karachi and were shown in the lists of their ancestral provinces.

Salim Zia of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said holding elections on the lists with anomalies was tantamount to depriving the people of their mandate.

Awami Muslim League’s Mehfoozyar Khan demanded holding of elections through computerised voting system like in India to eliminate bogus voting.

Ghulam Mustafa of JUI-S, Mir Nawaz Marwat of Motamar Al-Alam Al-Islami, Zia Abbas of National People’s Party, Syed Osat Ali of Pakistan Awami Tehreek, Nusrat Mirza of Muslim Rabita Council, Siddique Rathore of JUP and others also spoke.