ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) failed to conduct smooth election of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) as its services remained suspended for around four hours, raising serious question marks about its efficiency.

Nadra, which made headlines in 2018 when its Result Transmission System (RTS) developed fault delaying the results, on Sunday failed to conduct the smooth election of PEC - a small engineering community.

Due to the faulty system of Nadra, the polling remained suspended for around four hours. This created doubts as some candidates alleged rigging.

Representatives of one of the contesting groups - United Engineers Alliance - held a press conference in Islamabad and alleged that the system was made dysfunctional to steal the victory of their group.

Candidate for Chairman Ishfaq Hussain Shah said that the fault in the Nadra system had raised serious question marks. He alleged that it was a rigging against his group. Engineer Mohammad Azhar of the same group said that they believed that all this was done as part of a conspiracy against their group.

“This time, engineers were very excited to vote for their favourite candidates, but mismanagement marred the election. This is a matter of concerns as elections of 300,000 engineers is not held smoothly. Today, I myself saw a large number of voters not voting because of the suspension of service. The fault is in Nadra system that badly affected the turnout,” said Rngineer Ghulam Mujaddid, a voter.

A total of around six panels were contesting the election. However, Nadra said there was a technical fault.

“Nadra regrets to inform the public that due to an unforeseen technical issue, our biometric verification services experienced disruption during the ongoing Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) elections. The services initially commenced smoothly but were unexpectedly interrupted at approximately 11am. Services were restored at 14:30pm and their stable access is being monitored,” a Nadra spokesperson said.

“We sincerely apologise to all PEC members for the inconvenience this disruption has caused. Nadra is currently conducting a thorough root cause analysis. The findings of this investigation will be promptly shared with the PEC,” he said in a press release.

The press release said that Nadra’s normal operations, including services at the Registration Centres and the support to passport offices, financial institutions, and telecommunication sector continued to function normally.

“Nadra remains dedicated to ensuring the reliability and efficiency of our services. We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of PEC members and the general public during this time,” it added.

Meanwhile, due to delay in the polling, PEC extended the polling time first till 9pm and then to 10pm.

According to PEC till 8pm, 36,000 voters had polled their votes. The polling for PEC governing body 2024-27 was being conducted through Nadra Biometric Verification Services (BVS) system.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2024