ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has asked the concerned stakeholders to prepare a prototype of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) for presentation to the federal Cabinet and the members of the National Assembly after Eidul Fitr.

The president gave these remarks while chairing a meeting of the sub-committee on Emerging Technologies on I-Voting, at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by Minister for IT and Telecom (IT&T) Syed Aminul Haque, Minister for Railways Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Minister for Science and Technology Syed Shibli Faraz, Secretary IT&T Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, acting chairman NADRA Brig Khalif Latif (retd), Director General (IT) Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Khizer Aziz, and senior officials of the government.

The president underlined the need for expediting the I-Voting process for overseas Pakistanis enabling them to register and cast their votes through the internet in a convenient manner.

He said modern voting solutions such as I-Voting and EVMs would increase accessibility, speed-up the processing of results on poll day and ensure transparency in the general elections.

Ministers for Science and Technology Syed Shibli Faraz updated the meeting about the progress made so far with regard to develop a prototype of the EVM.

The president said he would engage 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 members of the ECP for the early materialization of EVMs, biometric verification machines and I-Voting systems for overseas Pakistanis.

Acting chairman NADRA Brig Khalid Latif (retd) assured the meeting that the NADRA would provide full support to I-Voting system.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021