The Election Commission of Pakistan has agreed in principle for usage of Electronic Voting Machines in the next general elections following a pressing demand by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. PTI member Dr Arif Alvi informed this to a sub-committee of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms on Tuesday here in the Parliament House.
Talking to Business Recorder, he said that a sub-committee of the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms working under his supervision has made significant progress on three counts: usage of electronic voting machines, right of vote to overseas Pakistanis and biometric verification of voters. Alvi said the ECP has now to give a specific timeline as to when it is going to bid for the Electronic Voting Machines and where and when it is going to test the machines as a pilot project.
"The ECP will give us a specific timeline in the next few weeks about its strategy to market the specifications for the machines and their mass utilisation to test their authenticity," he said. Talking about right of vote to overseas Pakistanis, he said that significant progress has been made on this count too and it is expected that a broad agreement would be reached on it in the next couple of meetings of the parliamentary committee.
"We have been fighting for right of vote to overseas Pakistanis and would continue our efforts till the goal is achieved," he said, adding the overseas Pakistanis are an asset for the country and their participation in the election process cannot be barred. About the biometric verification, he said that a foreign consultant would give a detailed briefing on pros and cons of the process to the sub-committee on Thursday and this would be followed by a detailed briefing from an expert from the United Nations Development Programme. "The ECP and NADRA both are working on the biometric identity of voters and they are expected to complete their task within a week," he said.