ECP gets unreachable for overseas Pakistanis

• Official email addresses listed on the web invalid

The unresponsive state of email addresses of the Regional Election Commissioners (REC) and District Election Commissioners (DEC) listed on the official website of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is affecting a large number of overseas and local Pakistanis who are facing problems contacting ECP officials, Pakistan Today has learnt.

The email addresses of RECs and DECs of four provinces including Islamabad are unresponsive, mainly affecting overseas voters. There are 47 district and regional officers in Punjab, 37 in Sindh, 32 in Baluchistan, 39 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 8 in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and 23 in Islamabad. The email addresses of all the listed officials are not working.

Many Pakistanis who are living aboard tried to contact ECP officials several times on email addresses listed on the election commission’s official website www.http://ecp.gov.pk and found the server to be non-functional resulting in bouncing back of the emails.

Soufia Anis Siddiqui, an overseas Pakistani studying education at University of Oxford, reports, “I have written to at least 10 email addresses, all of which have been invalid, please help me to gain access. I don’t even get how you put up 50 invalid email addresses on the website.”