Addressing a joint press conference with ECP's Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan and Chairman Nadra Tariq Malik, the Chief Election Commissioner said that it was a historic day, as the ECP, in collaboration with Nadra, completed the first-phase of elections.
He asserted that the country's future is tied to free, fair and transparent general elections. "It is the responsibility of all to cooperate with the Election Commission for holding free, fair and transparent elections," said Ebrahim, adding that holding of transparent elections was vital to the provision of good future to "our new generations".
He said that though the lists have been finalised but further changes like registration of new voters who reached 18 years of age and correction of the constituencies' numbers will continue till the announcement of the general elections.
Out of the total of 84.365 million electoral rolls, the ECP has registered 47.773 million male voters and 36.591 female voters. As many as 48.3 million (27.2 million male and 21.01 million female) voters had been registered in Punjab and in Sindh, it registered 18.4 million voters with 10.2 million males and 8.2 million females. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the ECP registered 12.06 million voters, including 6.9 million male and 5.1 million female voters, while in Balochistan, a total of 3.3 million (1.9 million male and 1.5 million female) voters had been registered.
In Fata, the commission registered a total of 1.7 million voters with 1.12 million male and 550,000 female voters. In Federal Areas, the ECP registered a total of 604,000 voters with 325,000 male and 279,000 female voters. Ebrahim said that effort had been made to make the rolls transparent. However, he said, the voters could help in correction of any mistake before the announcement of the general elections. He said by sending an SMS on 8300‚ a voter can check his electoral information.
He said only the voter having computerised National Identity Cards would be allowed to cast votes. Secretary ECP urged provincial governments to legislate for holding local government elections, adding that after promulgation of a relevant law, the commission would be able to conduct local government elections in the country. The chairman Nadra said that its database was foolproof, secure and no one can even can think of having access to its database.