HYDERABAD, Aug 15: Sindh PPP president Syed Qaim Ali Shah has demanded that the government should update and computerise electoral rolls of the 2002 year instead of preparing new ones.

Speaking to journalists at the residence of MPA Zahid Bhurgari on Tuesday, he said that countless number of people had been left by enumerators during the house census.

On the occasion, Prof Hassan Shaikh announced joining the PPP in presence of local party leaders.

The PPP leader said that the election commission had unnecessarily called for preparation of new electoral rolls in spite of the fact that existing voter lists could have been updated.

He said that the preparation of new rolls indicated that the government did not rely on existing electoral rolls despite the fact that it was elected through same voter lists.

He said that census was an exclusive job to be done by census authorities but the election commission was getting it conducted through employees of the education department.

He said that in so many cases people were unaware of the fact that census had begun with the result that they had been left out.

“The names of people above 18 years of age are to be enumerated during house census but it was not done”, he said.

He said the party had lodged complaints with the provincial election commissioner but only paper work had been completed and nothing tangible was done.

“Census is to be conducted first and only then electoral rolls’ preparation is to begin”, he said.

He said that the government had prepared two separate electoral rolls for the 2001 local body elections and 2002 general elections.

“Anomalies in fact have begun now to rig next year’s polls because the government’s malafide intention is reflective from preparation of new rolls”, he said.

He said that the PPP voters were being ignored in PPP strongholds of Karachi because instead of enumerators, the government was getting the work done through their private sources.

He demanded that previous rolls should be updated and computerised and names of those who had died should be deled.

He said that villages as well as mohallahs had not been covered during the census work.

He called upon the government to make its agreement with the MQM public so that people of Sindh should know what had been decided between them.

He said that the Sindh chief minister had lost confidence of his own colleagues.

“Both the chief minister and the MQM are protecting their own interests”, he said.

He said though the president claimed that he belonged to Sindh but he was committing excesses against the province than any other federating unit.