By Abdul Qadir Qureshi(Pakistan News & Features Services)
The candidate for the post of Senior Vice President (SVP) of the
Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), Engr Inam Ahmed Osmani, and Engr
Jamshed Rizvi, in a joint press conference, complained that the election
rules were being violated and the polling stations were being set up in
far flung areas of Karachi in order to devoid voters casting their
votes. They demanded the polling stations to be set up in North
Nazimabad, Federal B Area, PECHS and Burns Road in Karachi.
The governing body elections of the PEC are scheduled to be held on June
14 on all Pakistan basis to elect 46 members including Chairman and
Senior Vice Chairman through right of franchise by 180,000 registered
voters.
86,127 registered voters are in Punjab, 66,774 in Sindh, 24,751 in
Khyber Pakhtoonkhawa and 4,921 in Baluchistan who could cast votes to
elect candidates.
Engr Osmani and Engr Rizvi remarked that the governing body of the PEC
has taken the decision to set up one polling station for 1,000 voters
and one polling booth for 200 to 250 voters and the location of polling
station would be set up in easy approach.
They regretted that instead the present administration of PEC has set up
ten polling stations in Karachi to deprive voters of their right of
fanchise.
They revealed that the PEC administration has set up three polling
stations for 4% voters in District Malir, four polling stations for 10%
voters in District South, only one polling station for 47% voters in
District Central, just one polling station for 28% voters of District
East and one polling station for 5% voters of District West, while not a
single polling station was set up in District Korangi.
They alleged that the administration had intentionally selected polling
station sites at far and difficult to reach places.
They said that some candidates and voters met with the members of
election committee PEC and acquainted the issue but all in vain. They
demanded Minister of Science and Technology and Election Committee PEC
to set up polling stations at North Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Burns
Road according to number of voters.
Engr Osmani and Engr Rizvi said that the election was being held under
the biometric system, which was pleasing on one hand but it may also
cause delay as under the procedure one voter would consume 4 to 5
minutes for casting vote.
They contended that under this condition approximately not more than 120
votes would be cast in ten hours and more than 80% voters would be
deprived of their right to vote under the plan of administration of PEC.
They said that the governing body elected in 2011 was scheduled to
expire on December 31, 2014 but it unilaterally extended period by one
year, which was illegal and contravening the rules of the PEC.
They added that under the constitution of the PEC only those engineers
are entitled to cast vote those were registered by June 30 of the
election year but the governing body on its own changed the registration
date to May 14 and decided to hold election on June 14, instead of June
30.
They said that on the other hand less polling were set up all over
Pakistan and in Lahore alone 5 polling stations are set up for 17,900
voters, two polling station in Multan for 3,100 voters, three polling
stations in Peshawar for 5,238 voters, three polling stations in
Islamabad for 8,790 voters and just three polling stations for 7,930
voters of Rawalpindi. They felt that the election committee PEC was
striving to prevent voters from casting their votes.
