‘Unverified voters’
November 20th, 2012
It is encouraging that Pakistan is finally undertaking much-needed electoral reforms. An important step in the right direction has been the linking of the electoral rolls to Nadra’s identity cards’ record. But that has also thrown up the ongoing contentiousness over the issue of ‘unverified’ voters. On Friday, the Election Commission of Pakistan disclosed that it had detected some 4.8 million ‘unverified voters’. The estimated figures per constituency are such that legislators have expressed the fear that these could upset the entire election scenario. Some of them have demanded these ‘unverified’ voters be immediately removed from the lists. Thankfully, the next day Nadra clarified that ‘unverified’ voters did not mean false identities or bogus votes, but referred instead to verification of voters’ places of residence. All these people have valid and verified identities, confirmed Nadra chairman Tariq Malik, and CNICs have been cross-referenced with other data such as bank accounts and machine-readable passports.
The problem, evidently, is that these 4.8 million people are ‘unverified’ because their current place of residence — as opposed to the permanent place of residence listed on the CNICs — has not been verified through the door-to-door contacting process. The current place of residence determines the constituency in which a citizen would vote. Nadra says that for all these individuals, verification was attempted three times. According to Mr Malik, not contacting the ECP for changes indicated that the individuals were “satisfied with the status of their entries”.
Certainly, no one should be disenfranchised — and it is worth noting that the unverified millions include 69 lawmakers, six judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, and many bureaucrats and army officers. What we need then is a large-scale campaign involving the administration as well as citizens to set the record straight and to ensure that people’s status is verified. The question is, where are the politicians in all this? The only interest they have shown so far is in demanding the arbitrary disenfranchisement of several millions. Are they not the primary stakeholders in a free and fair election? They should be far more involved in the process of registering people on the electoral rolls, helping verify their places of residence, the constituencies in which they are eligible to vote and other relevant details. Once the elections take place and results start rolling in, it is easy to predict that bickering will occur. How about helping the ECP and Nadra with the unwieldy but crucial task now? That would be a more valuable contribution to the democratic project than constantly complaining.
Muharram fears
November 20th, 2012
Sunday's blast at an imambargah in Karachi has heightened the immediate fear of the city’s residents that this year’s Muharram could be a bloody one. This was a nagging concern even before the weekend, both because of the record of violence during the holy month in past years and especially because of the sectarian violence that has plagued Karachi in the weeks leading up to it. Now, with an attack having been successfully carried out despite heavy security and several days still left to go before the particularly sensitive first 10 days of Muharram have passed, the spectre of another, and possibly more deadly, attack has become more real than ever.
As is the case every year, extraordinary security arrangements have been put in place for the month and volunteers from various communities and law enforcement are present at religious gatherings and processions in large numbers. And last year’s success in preventing large-scale attacks in the city shows that the authorities have built up some expertise in how to address the risks that Muharram brings. But Sunday’s blast showed that existing measures are still not enough. The attack, in which a motorcycle parked near the imambargah blew up, makes it clear that one obvious measure is to increase the radius around at-risk places of worship within which vehicles should not be parked, however inconvenient this might be for worshippers and nearby residences and businesses. But it also remains important to balance the need for security with citizens’ basic needs; this attack should not be taken as a reason for a blanket ban on motorcycles, on which over a million people in the city depend. Given this year’s record of sectarian violence across Pakistan, Sunday’s blast also begs the question of where else in the country an attack might take place and argues for an even greater effort in other sensitive areas as well. Karachi’s horrific Ashura blast of 2009 is still a recent memory, and this year’s trajectory suggests that law enforcement will have to step up their efforts to prevent another tragic event.
Public’s responsibility
November 20th, 2012
CNG cylinder blasts are not something that can be entirely blamed on the government while the public plays the innocent victim. In fact, such explosions — the latest blast in Karachi on Sunday took two lives — are very much of the people’s own making. They are mostly the result of greed, disregard for safety and a general disrespect for life. They can hardly be attributed to the lack of a public-awareness campaign. The frequent explosions are loud enough in themselves to remind the public of the dangers posed by faulty CNG kits. CNG stations have to prominently display a notice refusing gas to the drivers of those vehicles that do not carry certificates declaring that their gas kits are in working order. There has been no let-up in official and media reminders about the urgency of a CNG kit examination. Aside from private hands — some of them competent, others adept only at complicating matters — there is the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan that requires these kits to be examined every five years and has its own designated inspection centres. At around Rs500 per kit the job doesn’t entail too high a price. It is criminal how vehicle owners ignore all these warnings at such huge risk to life and limb.
Of course the government can be asked to set up more examination centres and expedite their working. It also has a responsibility to haul up all those vehicles fitted with all kinds of improvised and unfit CNG cylinders and find effective ways to punish their users. At the same time, for their own sake, the citizens must look around and help in the identification of lawbreakers. Provided that everyone is willing to come out of their false security zones and get their kits checked, many precious lives may yet be saved.