ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Sunday said his ministry has developed a technology for electronic voting which would be transferred to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) soon.
The technology has been developed with the support of National Institute of Electronics, National University of Science and Technology and COMSATS and it would help ensure transparency in the election process through electronic voting. “Electronic voting can help get rid of rigging in elections”, he said.
The minister was speaking at a news conference along with Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Senator Shibli Faraz, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Punjab on Information, Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan and Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader, Usman Dar.
Chaudhry Fawad said we had also presented election reform bill for adopting electronic voting system in elections to end malpractices. The minister stated that the opposition complained of rigging in the by-polls only in the constituency where Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate won however their own candidates won in Nowshera and Wazirabad which they accepted happily.
The minister said although we had spent crore of rupees in the past during contesting by-election in each union council during the whole week but when late Kalsoom Nawaz contested election, Rs three billion were spent in a single constituency without any audit.
Chaudhry Fawad said that we should have raised allegations of rigging when Maryam Nawaz in her tweet announced the election result late night at 1:00 am, declaring her victory.
Rejecting the baseless claims of Maryam Nawaz regarding delay in results in Daska, Chaudhry Fawad said “We do not live on Mars and are well aware of the fog situation in the area.”
He demanded the ECP to issue formal notification about winning of PTI candidate, Ali Asjad Malhi from NA-75 (Daska).
“We have not been celebrating the victory of our candidate due to the deaths of two persons near the polling station in Daska as we are here to express our condolences to the bereaved family members”, he said.
The victory of Ali Asjad Malhi would be celebrated on our next visit, he added.
He said that Ali Asjad Malhi election was as transparent as it was held in other constituencies of Wazirabad, Nowshera and Karachi. “We lost elections in Karachi and Nowshera but have not raised any allegation of rigging and accepted the results. This is the real difference between a democratic party and a non democratic party which grew up in the lap of a dictator.
Chaudhry Fawad also stated that the videos of horse trading have become public now and the masses had seen the real faces of those involved in this practice. “We want to end the practice of rigging in the elections and have been demanding that elections should be open which is not acceptable for the opposition”, he said.
The minister condemned the attack on Geo and Jang Media Groups central office by protestors in Karachi and asked the police to take action against those involved.
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