ISLAMABAD – After the Supreme Court’s approval meant that the country’s biggest database manager started working on the development of an integrated internet voting system aimed at extending the right of franchise to over seven million Pakistanis living abroad in time for the next general elections, experts fear digital dhandli might be on the cards.
This is despite a three-tier electronic mechanism – named the Internet Voting System for Overseas Pakistanis – being in place to streamline the voting process.
“These systems will be punctured like the paintee puncture,” said leading expert on dhandli Farhan Virk. “Those patwaris are thieves and by correlation in the digital sphere, they are hackers. In fact, rigging the digital elections would be easier of them than the physical action of putting in forged votes,” he added.
A leading pioneer in the field of dhandli Imran Khan said that rigging is inevitable in the 2018 elections.
“No matter what technology you use, the votes that put the stamp on the lion would be the result of hacking and those that put it on the bat, would be genuine,” Khan said, giving foolproof evidence of the expected rigging.
“In fact, I would suggest that this time around a campaign against dhandli is launched before it takes place, unlike the previous time where they waited for the crime to take place before taking action against it,” Khan said.