Says each report submitted by Authority is subject to cross-examination by councils of the petitioner and respondents in the court of law
The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has rejected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s statement that it is operating a secret cell in the basement of the COMSATS building in Islamabad.
A NADRA spokesperson said the PTI chief’s assertions were “baseless and unfounded”. He said that NADRA had hired two floors of the COMSATS building in April 2011 to carry out the printing of Electoral Rolls for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which is still under the use of NADRA.
“NADRA sub-contracted printing work to a private company, National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT), through an open tender process. NIFT installed heavy duty printers in the COMSATS building which were used to print only Electoral Rolls, including Photo Electoral Rolls, that were used in the 2013 general elections,” said the spokesman, adding that the printing facility is managed by NIFT and not by NADRA.
“It is not a printing press, and has never been used [to print] ballot papers or other election material. The printing facility [has not been] functional since December 2013, after the local government elections of Balochistan [which were] held on December 7, 2013,” said the spokesman.
NADRA clarified that the Printing Press of Pakistan had been assigned the task of printing the ballot papers in their facilities in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore by the ECP. The printing process was to take place under the supervision of the Pakistan Army, and NADRA and NIFT were not involved in the process.
“NADRA is carrying out its digitisation process of thumb verification in the presence of the election tribunal’s representative, as per the directives of the election tribunals. During this process, the polling bags were opened and relevant election material was scanned before the polling bags were packed and sealed again.”
“NADRA has [been tasked with] fingerprint verification by election tribunals for 36 constituencies – 15 of National Assembly and 21 of provincial assemblies,” the spokesperson said. “Till date, NADRA has submitted its analysis report on 26 constituencies, while exemption has been granted by competent courts in four constituencies. Work is in process on six constituencies under the ‘First IN, First OUT’ principle,” he said.
Giving details of thumb verification, the spokesperson said that NADRA had returned election material of 26 constituencies to the corresponding election tribunals after submitting its report. Election material pertaining to 10 constituencies, where work is under process or stay has been granted, is in possession of NADRA, he added.
“In such cases, the proper taking and receiving to the level of serial numbers and counts of each material is provided to the respective election tribunal in advance. There is no question of misappropriating sensitive election material, as its counting is carried out in the presence of a representative of the election tribunal, and then the report is reconciled at the time of returning the material to the respective election tribunal,” he said.
“Moreover, each report submitted by NADRA is subject to cross-examination by councils of the petitioner and respondents in the court of law. NADRA has successfully defended all [the reports submitted] in the respective election tribunals,” the spokesperson said.