ECP to build own storage centres at districts level

Election Commission of Pakistan has decided to build its own special storage centres at district and divisional level to keep election material and records safe from tampering, manipulation and theft. A senior official of the commission told Business Recorder on Friday that a special committee had been constituted to look into the matter and give cogent proposals to build new storage for the election record.
Secretary ECP would head the committee while all four provincial election commissioners would be its members, he said, adding the committee would also formulate a financial estimate for the new buildings. "It is not an easy task to do because this would require huge money to build special storage centres for the election record at district and divisional level," he said.
The official said ECP would forward a summary of the financial estimate to Finance Division to seek funds for the purpose. He said the commission had been working on the plan following report of Judicial Inquiry Commission that was constituted to probe alleged rigging in 2013 general elections. In its findings, the judicial commission recommended that the ECP should initiate necessary measures to ensure safety of the election record at district and divisional level, he said.
As for now, all the election record is kept in custody of districts' revenue departments and the ECP has virtually no control or supervision over the records. During the recent probe of election material in different constituencies, it emerged that election material in some districts and constituencies was manipulated, tampered and stuffed with bogus material, he said. He said ECP had had around 80 percent of its offices at district, divisional and provincial level in rented buildings and was not in a position to keep the entire record in its own custody.
"The ECP provincial offices in Lahore and Karachi are situated at locations where expansion is not possible; therefore the offices with special storages will have to be built entirely at new places in these cities," he said. Office of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Election Commissioner was situated in cantonment area of Peshawar and therefore its expansion was virtually impossible, he said, adding the Balochistan office was also not on ECP property. "There are 126 districts in the country and we may build storage in three, four phases," he said, adding the ECP committee would write to federal and provincial governments for help and cogent suggestions.