Daily Times

Islamabad: President Dr Arif Alvi has asked the concerned stakeholders to prepare a prototype of Electronic Voting Machine for presentation to the federal cabinet and members of the National Assembly after Eid-ul-Fitr.

He 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 that modern voting solutions such as I-Voting and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would increase accessibility, speed-up the processing of results on poll day and ensure transparency in the General Elections. The President gave these remarks while chairing a meeting of the sub-committee on Emerging Technologies on I-Voting, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, today.

The meeting was attended by Minister for IT & Telecom (IT&T), Syed Amin-ul-Haque, Minister for Railways, Senator Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Minister for Science and Technology, Senator Syed Shibli Faraz, Secretary IT&T, Mr Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Acting Chairman NADRA, Brig (r) Khalid Latif, Director General (IT) Election Commission of Pakistan, Mr Khizer Aziz, and senior officials of the Government.

Minister for Science and Technology, Senator Syed Shibli Faraz, updated the meeting about the progress made so far with regard to developing a prototype of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)

The President said that 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 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 (r) Khalid Latif, assured the meeting that NADRA would provide full support to the I-Voting system.