Expired CNICs Hinder Flood Victims’ Voting: Study

News Desk
Islamabad: The challenges related to voters’ issues pose significant obstacles that could impede an effective electoral process in Sindh and Balochistan, preventing the flood-affected population from exercising their fundamental right to vote, especially considering the prevalence of expired Computerized National Identity Cards (CNICs).
This huge gap was revealed by a recent study published by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI).
The CPDI held a stakeholders’ dialogue on the study made by Naseer Memon, a development professional expert on climate change, disaster management, and livelihoods.

The researcher told the participants that he compiled the study after having detailed group discussions with the people of flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan, including women and youth, besides stakeholder engagements and inclusive surveys to gauge the prevailing ground pulse in the wake of general elections 2024, scheduled for February 8.Chairperson of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Climate Change, Seemee Ezdi, speaking during the dialogue, said the use of voting rights was an important public responsibility that should be ensured by the masses to bring about a change in their lives.
She noted that it was an uphill task to make the people realize their right to vote during electoral campaigns.
“The issues pertaining to voters highlighted in the study are serious gaps that will hamper an efficient electoral process. The flood-impacted populace bearing expired CNICs (computerized national identity cards) can be extended by the NADRA,” she added.
Senator Ezdi underscored that the 2022 flood devastation washed away over 13,000 kilometers of roads and some 1,444 bridges in Balochistan and Sindh, where the population was still awaiting relief and assistance.
“In this situation,” she said, “the indigenous population of those areas has lost its motivation to vote, but it is now the responsibility of the area candidates contesting polls to encourage them to vote.”
Senator Ezdi proposed to utilize the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) mobile voter registration vans as mobile polling stations to ensure voting in the flood-affected areas. The ECP and the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) could collaborate in that regard.
Former Senator Farhatullah Babar complemented the CPDI team for its endeavor to bring the forgotten flood-hit population on the radar of the media and relevant departments.“Around 10 million women in the country lacked CNICs, who are disenfranchised to poll in the general elections. The right to vote should be a prerogative of the masses, not their obligation being imposed on them,” he said.
Babar said many countries like Turkiye and Bolivia, despite facing natural catastrophes, held elections, and their practices should be replicated in Pakistan to make the election all-inclusive.
A former member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Shagufta Malik, said that the disaster-prone areas had lost critical infrastructure that impeded smooth polling prospects in that region.
She asked the ECP to keep in mind the social and cultural norms of the provinces while laying out its polling stations’ plans and systems.
She also raised her concerns over the growing security risks due to communal conflicts in the tribal region and suggested ensuring beefed-up security arrangements.
The research author, while sharing the study insights, said the target districts in the research were Khairpur, Naushahro Feroz (Sindh), Naseerabad, and Jaffarabad from Balochistan.
He said the study linked the polls and flood devastation, as floodwater was still stagnant in those areas and the media had lost its focus on coverage of these areas.
The seven critical issues reported in the study were mainly lost CNICs, flood-damaged road infrastructure, political influence in post-flood relief operations, accidents amid road damages, house damage and family displacement, and intra-community conflicts, he added.Almost 40 percent of the school infrastructure developed during Sindh independence was destroyed by the floods, which were used for polling stations. However, the ECP wrote letters to the chief secretaries of both provinces to ensure the rehabilitation of those assets so that elections could be managed in those buildings, and some Rs400,000 per school was issued by both provinces to repair the damaged schools.
The study recommended that the local masses had solutions like an expedited process for the issuance of the CNICs to flood-affected areas, NADRA deployed registration vans in greater numbers in farflung areas, made special arrangements for women and the elderly, relocated polling stations in villages close to their vicinity, established ramps at polling stations for persons with disabilities, provided transportation on polling days, and deployed additional security at the conflict-prone polling stations.