LAHORE, Oct 5: Hitting out at political parties for their “lack of interest in the election process”, Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim has alleged that not a single party has so far obtained copy of the new voter list to check its entries.

Justice (retd) Ebrahim told journalists on Friday that according to various parties millions of people had yet to be registered as voters. “Whenever I see such reports in the media, I get angry.

“That’s because they (parties) are so disinterested in the process that not one of them has acquired the copy of the voter list to check and verify its entries,” he remarked.

Talking to media personnel during a visit to a mock polling station, the chief election commissioner dared his critics and detractors to come up with just a few thousand eligible names that could not be enlisted.

Ensuring the inclusion of all eligible names in the voter list was not the sole responsibility of the Election Commission, he said. “Rather, all individuals, parties and civil society organisations share this onerous responsibility.

“Many mistakes were no doubt committed in the past and many more will be committed in future, but we are ready to rectify our mistakes.”

Answering a question about dual nationality of lawmakers, Justice (retd) Ebrahim acknowledged that the legislatures seemed to be angry over the issue as they had refused to submit certain information.

The commission would meet in Islamabad on Oct 9 (Tuesday) to deliberate on the situation, he said.

Asked if the commission could initiate contempt proceedings against the National Assembly and Senate secretariats for refusing to submit the required information, he said the issue would be taken up during the meeting on Tuesday.

When asked whether the commission was in a position to provide conveyance to the voters as directed by the Supreme Court, Justice (retd) Ebrahim said one of the options under consideration involved increasing the number of polling stations so that the voters didn’t have to travel long distances to vote.

About the viability of holding elections in conflict-hit Balochistan, he said so far all the parties involved were desirous of elections in the province.

“In fact, the political process is the only viable option for restoring peace in the restive province,” he said.

He told a questioner that elections would be held on time as he foresaw no chance of delay in the electoral process.

About the amendments being made to the code of conduct, Justice (retd) Ebrahim said another meeting of party representatives would be convened to look into the matter.

Answering a question about the possibility of scrapping the results of a constituency where the ratio of women’s votes was less than 10 per cent, he said it was up to the parliament to decide on such issues.

A member of the commission, Justice (retd) Riaz Kayani, told a questioner that so far cases against 40 legislators had been sent to session courts because they had submitted copies of bogus degrees to the commission. A few more cases could be sent to the courts by the end of this month.

He said the courts were being sent reminders as they were bound to adjudicate on the cases within three months.

During a briefing earlier, the commission members were told that some administrative and other changes had made re-description and re-delineation of 72 National Assembly and 137 Punjab Assembly constituencies imperative.

They were told that against the 41.5 million voters in Punjab in 2002, there were now 48.91 million voters in the province.