KARACHI - Pakistan Peoples’ Party Sindh on Thursday submitted a memorandum to the Chief Election Commissioner, demanding that the delimitation of electoral constituencies should be done under defined universal principles so that it is acceptable to all stakeholders, and this exercise should not be confined to Karachi alone. General Secretary of the PPP Sindh Chapter Taj Haider submitted the memorandum to the office of the chief election commissioner, which suggests inclusion of all voters, who left out and delimitation of electoral constituencies all over the Sindh province.Taj Haider said that PPP had been regularly complaining in the past that the present constituencies all over Sindh had been delineated to give political advantage to the parties in power and were ethnically based. The observations made and the directions given by the Supreme Court indicate our old stand. “The delimitation should be extended all over Sindh, since there may not be a single constituency in Sindh where the internationally accepted and acclaimed principles of delineating constituencies have not been violated with impunity,” PPP demanded.  The Election Commission may be pleased to consider following universal principles of equal population for every constituency compactness. Sharing the deficiencies of the electoral constituencies, the PPP leader cited that in Karachi there is a constituency which stretches 58 kilometres (NA-258). Recognition of natural boundaries like rivers, nullahs, major roads etc; such natural boundaries should not be overstepped. Contiguity and homogeneity, as far as possible, administrative boundaries (districts, towns, talukas, and UCs) should not be overstepped, PPP demanded.PPP has submitted that when we plan ethnic mixing, we recognise their separate existence. If we follow universally accepted principles they automatically get mixed. PPP in its memorandum said that data of National Identity Cards prepared by Nadra was a reliable and verifiable data. The only need is to issue CNICs to those citizens who have not been included as yet. The Election Commission has already decided to include all fresh NIC holders in the voters’ list. Provincial government is extending all assistance to Nadra for issuance of CNICs.This reliable data has been grossly corrupted through ‘Door to Door’ verification instituted by the Election Commission. Hardly any house have been visited and the verifying staff has fraudulently filled verification forms and affixed fake signatures/thumb impressions on the form. Any random scrutiny of thumb impressions by Nadra can bring out the fact that most of the thumb impressions do not belong to the voters but to other persons including verifiers. A repeat of “Door-to-Door Verification” is not only unnecessary but will further corrupt the voter’s lists.Nadra data is the reliable voter’s lists. “Door-to-Door verification exercise which has already corrupted this data should be declared null and void and should not be repeated,” the PPP demanded. The good intention of the Election Commission that voters should be enabled to vote within 2kms of their residence cannot materialize, if the voter’s lists are prepared on the basis of “permanent address” and not on the basis of “present address”. A large number of voters who have migrated to large cities for economic reasons would stand practically disenfranchised if the lists remained on “permanent address” basis. It said that it was true that the EC had given voters the right to get their address corrected. But the ground situation is that very few will utilise this option as it is not more than 10 per cent of all the voters have checked their votes through mobile phone 8300 facility.The solution is straight forward and simple, ruling PPP suggesting that all political parties except one or two agree that voter lists should be printed on “Present address” basis. If there are a few voters who still like to travel hundreds of kilometer to vote in their ancestral towns they can get their votes shifted. Also those who have moved to a new address from the “present address” printed on their NICs can get their vote shifted under the law (if they so desire) after giving satisfactory proofs of change of residence to the Election Commission. Pakistan People’s Party Sindh feels that a lot of confusion and hassle can be set aside if the proposal agreed to by political parties (except one or two parties) is adopted by the Election Commission.Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh, most humbly cautions the Election Commission that reliable elections cannot be held without preparing reliable voters lists. Also most humbly that disenfranchisement of genuine voters and loopholes in the voters’ lists provides space to anti-democratic forces to manipulate results and sabotage fair elections.PPP Sindh also submits that the method of preparing voters lists should be uniform all over the country. Adopting a different method for Karachi or any other City would create anomalies which may be in conflict with the very principles of justice.