Re: Tell the President Voters cannot be denied their right;CJ
I think before making assumptions, CJ as well as Pakistan government and election commission should show some imagination, and come out with real (and probably true) explanation for all this missing voters in voter list.
When Bangladesh and West Pakistan was one country, Population of West Pakistan was around 80 percent of Bangladesh. Today (2007), population of Bangladesh is around 150 million and 80 percent of 150 million is around 120 million.
Similarly in 1970, West Pakistan population was less than 11 percent of India’s population. Today (2007) India’s population is shade under 1130 million. 11 percent would be 124 million.
Now it is mystery that Pakistan claims that there are 165 million people in Pakistan? How it is that? Well, Pakistan is a corrupt society where politicians are shrewd as well as dishonest. Some time I feel that it is possible Pakistan population after all is not 165 million but much less (maybe around 120 million).
Recorded population of Pakistan is comparatively very high today because probably political parties have lot of ‘farishtas’ of their own for voting purposes, and they only come out when election comes. They may have also made many old NIC for the purpose (as it was easy to get old non computerised NIC).
This is well known fact in Pakistan that many people made multiple NIC for various reasons. Now NIC is computerised and thus it is difficult to make mulitple NIC, hence we are seeing a much lower number of registered voters. I do not know how this would get sorted out.
It is also possible that provinces are showing population higher then it is, so that they can get more money in ‘provincial award’ (NFC award) from federal government that is mostly dependent on population of province. I think that many people living in Karachi and other big cities, migrated from interior areas, have record in census at their new residence as well as in their original place of residence.
I think that if there are 50 million voters now as compared to 70 million in 2002, it is understandable. Because duplicate NIC cards (or NIC for farishtas) for voting purposes must be adults and thus, those 35 to 40 million extra population are mostly voters population. Thus, it is possible that in 2002, instead of around 70 million registered voters in 2002, possibility is that, in reality there were around 40 to 45 million voters. Over last 5 years, their numbers have increased to around 50 million voters (It is also possible that even today, there are some farishtas in voter list).
Well, this is just an assumptive conclusion :).