By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP&HRD) Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari on Monday underlined the need for simplifying i-voting registration process for the Pakistani expatriates.
He called for introducing a mechanism which enabled the overseas Pakistanis to register and cast votes through portable digital devices. He was speaking here at a meeting on i-voting chaired by Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Baber Awan. The meeting was also attended by the officials of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The minutes of previous meeting on the i-voting was also reviewed.
The NADRA representative gave a detailed briefing to the participants on the i-voting project for the overseas Pakistanis. An electronic demonstration of three steps, including registration, verification and vote casting procedure for the expats was also given during the meeting.
The meeting decided to take up the matter in the upcoming sessions of National Assembly and Senate, and thereafter the ECP would be recommended to initiate the i-voting process for the overseas Pakistanis. This is the second meeting on the i-voting during the current month, which indicates that the government has geared up its efforts to ensure the participation of expats in the upcoming elections through internet-voting (i-voting).
It was recommended during the previous meeting that the overseas Pakistanis could be registered on the basis of their Pakistani Passport and National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP). The ECP and NADRA were also asked to jointly initiate a programme to ensure confidential voting for the overseas Pakistanis.
