ISLAMABAD:
PTI Chairman Imran Khan expressed shock over the statement by National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) chief before judicial commission, querying as to why elections were not conducted on the basis of identity cards alone if the thumb impressions were altogether insignificant, according to local media sources.
Sparring with the mediamen after the meeting of the inquiry commission, Khan was of the view, “How can NADRA chief assert that the votes were not fake if thumb impressions are not distinct–machine readable?”
He claimed that the returning officers (ROs) drew up the elections results adding all political parties believe that May 2013 elections were RO-manipulated elections.
It should be mentioned here that NADRA chief Usman Mubeen averred before the commission headed by Chief Justice Supreme Court Nasirul Mulk that the magnetic ink was not required for the verification of thumb impressions of voters.
Usman claimed that NADRA has no expertise in order to ascertain if the ink was magnetic or not.
It is worth noting that the statement of the incumbent NADRA boss is in stark contradiction with what Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and former NADRA chief Tariq Malik have to say in this connection.
The former NADRA chairman Tariq Malik had claimed that the process for verification of thumb impressions requires magnetic ink.
Addressing the National Assembly at the very outset of this government, Chaudhry Nisar said, “How could the rigging be probed as the magnetic ink was not used so that the thumb imprints could be verified?”
Terming Usman Mubeen’s statement as against the fact, Imran Khan said the inquiry commission will decide in this connection.