ISLAMABAD, Aug 18: The Pakistan People’s Party has urged the Chief Election Commissioner to reconsider the single identity condition and permit the use of multiple identity condition for voting as it existed in all elections until 1988 when rules were arbitrarily changed.
The demand has been contained in a letter by party’s acting secretary general Mian Raza Rabbani to Chief Election Commissioner Justice Irshad Hasan Khan (retired).
“The Pakistan People’s Party’s fair election programme emphasizes the need for voters to use multi-identity cards. The use of the single identity card gives the state apparatus a massive advantage and puts the voter at a serious disadvantage,” Rabbani said.
The PPP also forwarded a copy of an article in the South Asia Tribune with the heading, “Is this a grand plan to rig the October elections,” saying that is envisaged on the basis of the single identity card, namely the new card prepared by the military regime.
According to the South Asia Tribune, Rabbani said, the October polls in Pakistan were in serious trouble as the Musharraf government had failed to provide almost 10 million qualified new voters their computerized National Identity Cards (NICs) “without which they cannot vote. If this NIC condition is waived at the last moment, a new Pandora‘s Box will open with chances of massive rigging and manipulation by all sides. Almost 1.2 million records are missing, 500,000 applications in Sindh were waiting to get printed which could not be done.”
He said the report revealed that eight million applications were pending which needed to be disposed before the October polls.
“This is an astounding figure which can totally change the complexion of the elections unless the Election Commission intervenes.”
The South Asia Tribune says: “Although it looks an administrative and management problem, the entire mess smacks of a subtle political game to take away the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of voters, a substantial number from Sindh province; who are likely to support anti-Musharraf parties,” the letter said.
The PPP urged the CEC to take notice of this report and “restore voter confidence by doing away with single identity card which is in the control of the regime and permitting the multi-identity card with which challenged identities can be confirmed. Pakistanis have many identity cards, including passports, driving licenses,” the letter said.