The Final Electoral Rolls (FERs) would be published on May 25, Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan Ishtiak Ahmed Khan said Monday.

Addressing a press conference after attending a consultative meeting with political parties and civil society, he said extraneous efforts are underway to publish the final voter lists as soon as possible, however ECP will have to follow the procedure in this regard. The meeting has decided to write a letter to Supreme Court of Pakistan apprising that the publication of transparent voter lists is not possible by February 23, the secretary said.

The representatives of 14 political parties and members of civil society have attended the consultative meeting. Representatives of 11 political parties endorsed the point of view of ECP regarding the publication of voter lists and agreed that the Supreme Court should be asked to consider extending the date of publication of final voter lists, he said.

He said National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will hand over Preliminary Electoral Rolls (PERs) by end of February.

After that the ECP needs another few months to complete legal formalities including the establishment of 65,000 display centers across the country. The PERs would have to be displayed at the centers for at least three weeks. The voters would be provided the facility to check their votes in the PER through (SMS) small messaging facility.

To a question he said holding of by election is not against the constitutions as it has been clearly written in the constitution's article 224 to hold election within 60 days of vacancy. However he said ECP would follow order of the Supreme Court on conducing by election, he said.