Finalise voter lists by 23/2

The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to finalise electoral rolls by Feb.23 next year at every cost.It issued this order on a petition filed by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) Imran Khan, who had sought error-free voters’ lists and removal of bogus votes from the rolls.A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, which heard the petition and rejected the report and excuses presented by the ECP and made it clear that the ECP would not be given any extension to prepare the rolls.Justice Chaudhry said that the preparation of voters’ lists was deliberately delayed and the bench would take action against ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Khan because he has done nothing to finalise the rolls.In its report to the court, the ECP said that the governments of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had sent resolutions to it, demanding delay in lists while floods in Sindh also added to the problems.The chief justice remarked that only six districts of Sindh were affected by the floods and directed that the provincial governments’ resolutions should be produced before the court.“If general elections are held on March 15 next, would they be held on bogus lists and would then the next government be formed with 44 per cent bogus votes,” Justice Tariq Pervez, a member of the bench, asked.The chief justice said that voters’ lists should be precise and according to the computerised national identify cards. He said forth-four per cent of votes were bogus in the present lists and there would be chaos in Pakistan if next polls were held on the basis of these rolls.He said the lists’ preparation was a matter of national integrity and the process of making the rolls was critical for this very reason.Chaudhry said that former Chairperson of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Benazir Bhutto had also contacted the apex court for correction in the lists before the 2008 elections were held. Opposition leader and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif is demanding early elections amid speculation that a president weakened by illness and scandal will not complete his five-year mandate.President Asif Ali Zardari returned home on Monday after two weeks of medical treatment in Dubai for an illness that has not been publicly disclosed, but which aides have likened to a mini-stroke with no lasting damage.He came back with the Supreme Court deciding whether to investigate a memo allegedly written by one of Zardari’s closest advisers with his support in order to ask for American help in curbing the power of the military.Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, was forced to resign over the scandal and flatly denies the accusations from a US businessman.“The government’s credibility has already been damaged and it is in the incumbents’ interests to hold early polls to maintain some credibility,” Sharif told Pakistan’s private TV channel Geo and newspaper The News late on Tuesday.Sharif, who petitioned the Supreme Court to investigate the memo, is also thought to be nervous about the momentum behind cricket hero Imran Khan, who has taken Pakistan by storm with a series of huge campaign rallies.“Lawlessness, power cuts, price hikes and unemployment have made people’s lives miserable. New elections are the only solution,” a spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League-N party, Siddiqul Farooq, told AFP on Wednesday.Zardari has survived multiple crises and calls for his resignation since taking office in 2008, but his return to Pakistan has done little to quieten the latest speculation in the local media that his days are numbered.Although elections are not due before February 2013, many observers expect polls some time in 2012. No civilian leader in Pakistan has ever completed a full term in office.