ISLAMABAD, Feb 12: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided on Tuesday to include another amendment to the Representation of People’s Act (ROPA), 1976, to prevent disenfranchisement of a large number of persons displaced from Fata and Balochistan.

Sources told Dawn that during a meeting on voting arrangements for displaced people (IDPs) of Fata and Balochistan held here with Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim in the chair, the ECP member for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Justice (retd) Shahzad Akbar Khan pointed out that under section 8 of ROPA, polling stations could not be set up outside the constituency’s limits.

Earlier, the commission had almost finalised the decision to set up polling stations within IDP camps to help the displaced electorates.

The meeting was informed that there were 163,000 displaced families in Fata, with over 16,000 families living in IDP camps.

The sources said that Jamhoori Watan Party had also written a letter to the ECP claiming that some 200,000 to 250,000 people belonging to Dera Bugti and Kohlu areas of Balochistan had migrated to safe places across the country during the military operation.

Peshawar High Court Chief Justice had recently ruled that the polling of the vote was a fundamental right fully guaranteed by the Constitution and therefore, procedural technicalities or rules shall not create impediments and hurdles in the exercise of such fundamental rights. The court had directed the provincial election commissioner to send a summary to the president and the chief election commissioner for approval of relaxation of relevant rules so that polling stations for male and female voters could be set up for IDPs at the Jalozai camp.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Director General (elections) of ECP Sher Afgan said no reference was to be sent to the president since no amendment in rules was involved in the case. He said the ECP had already prepared a draft proposing amendments to around two dozen sections of the ROPA, and now another amendment would be added to the draft law to amend section 8 of the Act and to do away with the bar on establishment of polling stations out of constituency limits.

Answering a question, he said the commission would ensure meaningful scrutiny of poll candidates even if the proposal to increase the timeframe for scrutiny from one week to 30 days was not approved. He said no amendment in the constitution would be required if the period was extended by one week through amending the relevant section of ROPA, which would require a simple majority.

He said the commission would hold a meeting with officials of the Federal Board of Revenue and State Bank of Pakistan on Wednesday to finalise a mechanism to promptly identify tax evaders and loan defaulters among poll candidates. He said one of the apparently workable idea was to immediately send Form-4 of contesting candidates to the FBR and SBP for verification.