THE Election Commission of Pakistan once again finds itself mired in controversy.

As reported in Dawn on Sunday, an ECP official has said that the votes of some 15m people in Pakistan enrolled in areas other than the addresses shown on their CNICs will be shifted to the ‘permanent’ addresses on these documents by the commission.

Reportedly, this will be done if these individuals ‘fail to decide’ where they want to be registered as voters by the deadline of Dec 31.

According to the source, quoting Section 27 of the Elections Act, a person shall be deemed to be a resident of a certain electoral area if his permanent or temporary address — the two provisions on the CNICs — lies in the said area.

While simple on the surface, the implications here are deeply problematic, especially in a country with rates of internal migration as high as Pakistan’s.

Most obviously, there is the issue that millions of people live in places that are not listed on their CNICs; given the time and effort required to have such official documents changed or updated, it comes as no surprise that these citizens end up not having the information on their CNICs modified as needed, even when they live at what Nadra refers to as a ‘third’ address.

Changing the area of their vote to the permanent addresses listed with Nadra means in effect disenfranchising these estimated 15m citizens, with the onus of blame being laid on them given the looming Dec 31 deadline.

The fact is that these millions are all citizens of Pakistan, and are in addition registered voters, and where they happen to be when elections are called ought to be absolutely immaterial as long as the central requirement of holding a CNIC is met.

Is Nadra prepared for the chaos that would occur if millions of people across the country rushed to have their documents changed? Or are voters expected to travel back to the places listed as their permanent residences to vote once the deadline has expired?

In addition, there is an irony to be found here. The ECP has been looking into providing voting rights to overseas Pakistanis, and working out the means to facilitate this as much as possible in this exercise.

Contrast this with the domestic CNIC address issue, and the picture that emerges is one of total dichotomy.

The ECP should not be seen as facilitating one group of people while disenfranchising another.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2018