By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday directed the authorities concerned to manufacture a prototype of Electronic Voting Machine for presentation to the Federal Cabinet and members of the National Assembly after Eid-ul-Fitr.
Chairing a meeting of the sub-committee on Emerging Technologies on I-Voting here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the president stressed the need for expediting the I-Voting process for overseas Pakistanis to enable them register and cast their votes through internet conveniently.
Minister for IT & Telecom (IT&T) Syed Amin-ul-Haque, Minister for Railways Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Minister for Science and Technology Senator Syed Shibli Faraz, Secretary IT&T Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Acting Chairman NADRA Brig (Retd) Khalid Latif, Director General (IT) Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Khizer Aziz, and senior government officials attended the meeting.
President Alvi said modern voting solutions like I-Voting and EVMs would increase accessibility, speed-up the processing of results on polling day and ensure transparency in the general elections.
Minister for Science and Technology Shibli Faraz updated the meeting about the progress made so far regarding the development of a prototype of the Electronic Voting Machine. The president said he would engage the parliamentarians and members of the political parties to support the introduction of EVMs in the upcoming general elections.
He also expressed the desire to consult the Chief Election Commissioner and ECP, members for the early materialization of EVMs, Biometric Verification Machines and I-Voting systems for the overseas Pakistanis.
Acting Chairman of National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) Brig (Retd) Khalid Latif assured the meeting that NADRA would provide full support to the I-Voting system.
Earlier on Wednesday, central leaders of various political parties had termed the proposal of the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) as a right move for ensuring transparency in the election process.
Appreciating the government’s suggestion of using electronic voting machines, parliamentarians from different parties and political leaders said that the government and opposition should sit together to have a dialogue on electoral reforms.
