ISLAMABAD: National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has informed the top court that 14,048 used counterfoils (CFs) in constituency NA-110, Sialkot, could not be processed due to insufficient quality of fingerprints for the purpose of automated fingerprint comparison. It further submitted that voters’ identity of 298 used counterfoils could also not be established because of invalid Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) numbers. NA-110 Sialkot is the constituency where Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif won the last general elections securing 92,803 votes against his political rival Usman Dar of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, who bagged 71,525 votes. Later Usman Dar had challenged the elections of the said constituency in the Election Tribunal which decided the case against him after which he approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Now, in compliance with the top court’s order of July 2, 2016, NADRA carried out the examination and comparison of election material of the remaining 26 polling stations of the said constituency and submitted its report with the top court on Friday. The report further stated that 502 counterfoils, documents that were torn off and kept as a record by the person issuing it, did not qualify for the fingerprint verification due to numerous reasons not falling under the purview of analysis.
It is pertinent to mention that all available information on the counterfoils was used to arrive at the identity of the voter and this includes the NIC and voter’s serial number mentioned on the counterfoils. Regarding the invalid CNIC on the CFs, the report stated that voters’ identity could not be established in 298 used CF mainly in polling station (PS) number 217 (65 votes) and at PS number 186 (44 votes). There were 31 used CFs which do not have CNIC numbers mentioned mainly in PS number 54 (6 votes) and PS number 73 (5 votes). Likewise, 7 used CFs belonged to voters which were not registered in this constituency NA-110, the report stated. The report said that 46 CNIC numbers were mentioned more than once on 23 CFs and this information were extracted from capturing CNIC number written on used CFs.
The report said that fingerprints were missing on 120 used CFs mainly PS number 54 (69 votes) and PS number 47 (11 votes).