Fawad-Chaudhry-750x369Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is an independent institution which is taking decisions without any political interference.
Talking to a private news channel, the minister said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is the most popular political party among the people as they are showing full confidence in the honest and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The minister said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) are responsible for all problems of the people because they did nothing for the welfare of the masses during their governments.
He said that Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will also be further strengthened to enhance its performance, adding the ECP act can play a vital role for handling departments more effectively as compared to caretaker government systems.
Fawad said that the electronic voting machine developed by the National Institute of Electronics can be used on an experimental basis which would help getting rid of election rigging and analyse the security situation. The minister said that ballot paper can also be printed through the machine besides vote casting. Not only electric vote casting can be done through the machine but also ballot paper can be printed.
The minister announced that the work on the electronic voting machine is in the final stages and this machine would be shared with the National Database Registration Authority, National University of Science and Technology and COMSATS soon.
He said, “Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Institute of Electronics had done a great job by developing such a machine,” adding the machine has been developed as per directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan to ensure fair and transparent elections. He explained that e-voting machines would be affordable in Pakistan. He said it would not be connected with the internet to ensure its voting credibility unlike India where the issue of hacking during the elections was reported due to its connectivity with the internet.
He said electronic voting would make the election process more efficient and secure, reduce costs, maximize, voter turnout, increase voter confidence in the system, and help reduce fraud and manipulation.
