ISLAMABAD: Inaugural ceremony of 4th Phase of ECP-NADRA Joint Campaign for Women NIC/Voter Registration was held at the ECP Secretariat, here on Wednesday. The Chief Election Commissioner, Sikandar Sultan Raja formally inaugurated the said campaign. The event was attended amongst others by the Members Election Commission of Pakistan, Chairperson NADRA, Secretary ECP, Officers of ECP, NADRA, development partners of the ECP.
Chief Election Commissioner while addressing the ceremony said that as per Article 25 of Constitution of Pakistan, the ECP was committed to provide equal opportunity to every segment of the society and in this regard the ECP was trying to make electoral process more inclusive. Today’s ceremony is the proof that the ECP was working very hard to enhance the political empowerment of women, he added. Chief Election Commissioner appreciated the role of NADRA, ECP’s development partners, civil society and media for assisting the ECP in its efforts to increase Female NIC/Voter Registration and to mitigate the Gender Gap in Electoral Rolls.
Secretary ECP, Dr. Akhter Nazir while addressing the ceremony said that following its Strategic Plan, the ECP was trying to lessen the gender gap in the electoral rolls. ADG Gender Affairs, Ms. Nighat Siddique in her briefing said that since the launch ECP-NADRA Joint Campaign on Female NIC/Voter Registration in 2017 and as a result of three phases of the said Campaign, Female NIC/Voter Registration increased manifold. In comparison to the Electoral Rolls published in October 2020 the gender gap had further gone down from 12.41 million to 12.37 percent in the Electoral Rolls published in April 2021. Fourth phase of the Campaign was the continuation of ECP’s efforts to mitigate the gender gap in Electoral Rolls, she added.
Chairperson NADRA, Mr. Tariq Malik, in his address to the ceremony appreciated the efforts of the ECP for Women NIC/Voter Registration and assured that NADRA would keep providing its assistance to the ECP in this regard. He said that NADRA was targeting those 80 districts where the gender gap in NIC/Voter lists was 10 percent or more. NADRA would soon be establishing 66 Registration Centers at the Tehsil level, moreover, NADRA had marked Friday as “Women Registration Day”, he added.
In the ceremony, Chief Election Commissioner handed over NICs to three women who got registered for the very first time with NADRA. At the end Chief Election Commissioner also inspected the Mobile Registration Van (MRV) of NADRA in the premises of the ECP which had all female staff.
