ISLAMABAD: A senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) confirmed on Friday that the commission had enlisted the services of ‘experts’ from the ‘private sector’ to print serial numbers of ballot papers made for the 2013 general elections.

Briefing reporters after an ECP meeting with Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali in the chair, Director General (Elections) Masood Malik said that as many as 34 ‘independent experts’ from the Urdu Bazaar and Lakshmi Chowk markets had been hired after a request was made to the Punjab government by the provincial election commission.

Also read: ECP dispels rigging allegations in 2013 polls

He said the decision was warranted because of the huge number of ballot papers and the short timeframe in which the numbers had to be pasted. He said the services of the 34 individuals had been placed at the disposal of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) and the work was carried out at the PCP’s own premises, not at a private facility. He said that a complete record of the people hired for the task was available with the commission.

Mr Malik said the PCP’s own machines could not do the required job and, therefore, the commission was forced to outsource the work.

DG (Information Technology) Khizar Aziz, Additional Director General (Media) Iftikhar Raja and Director (Law) Sheikh Muhammad Nawaz were also present.

Talking about the magnetised ink fiasco, he said that under Section 33 of the Representation of People’s Act 1976, the possession of computerised national identity cards was a mandatory requirement for voting and thumbprint verification was not legally required. Asked to explain the legal status of biometric verification, he said the system had been put in place on the directions of the apex court.

The ECP official insisted that magnetised ink had been used in the 2013 polls. He said the idea was floated by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and the ink was produced by the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR). He said the PCSIR had sent four specimens and one of them had been approved by Nadra.

He said the ECP and the polling staff were aware before the polls that the ink had a life not exceeding six hours after opening and, therefore, two inkpads each had been made available at each polling booth.

Answering a question, Director (Law) Sheikh Muhammad Nawaz said the biometric verification system had been introduced as per the Supreme Court’s instructions and was not a legal requirement. He said no election had been set aside on the basis of verification by any tribunal.

He said that out of the over 400 election petitions, only 76 were currently pending – and those too were in their final stages.

DG IT Khizar Aziz dispelled the impression that the result management system for the 2013 polls had failed. He said Form 16 and 17 had been received from the returning officers through the system and their computerised records were available with the commission.

Asked why this information had not been placed on the ECP’s website, an official said there was no such provision in the law.

The sources said the work on a fact-sheet, to be presented to the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms on Monday, has begun.

Published in Dawn, September 27th , 2014