ISLAMABAD, March 31: The Election Commission’s move to involve a foreign non-governmental organisation (NGO) in computerisation of electoral rolls using the computerised national identity card (CNIC) database despite opposition by the interior ministry has jeopardised the privacy of the data.

According to documents available with Dawn, the interior ministry opposed the involvement of the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES) in the project for computerisation of electoral roll system (CERS) and the economic affairs division (EAD) also did not sign the memorandum of understanding between the ECP and the IFES. However, the ECP involved the NGO in the sensitive project without completing legal formalities.

Constitutional expert S.M. Zafar said the CNIC data contained personal information of citizens and should not be shared with any local or foreign NGO.

Another expert, Mohammad Akram Sheikh, said that unless there was written consent from a citizen, his personal data provided to Nadra could not be shared with any NGO. According to the documents, the ministry of interior did not issue a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the economic affairs division and IFES despite repeated requests made between 2007 and 2010, because of concerns that it would provide uninterruptible access to the NGO to the sensitive CNIC database and classified data of the ECP.

The ministry suggested: “The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), a top-ranking, internationally recognised and expert organisation, may undertake the responsibility to improve the CERS project for electoral process in Pakistan so that secrecy of the CNIC database may remain only with Nadra and is not shared with any foreign organization.”

In January 2010, the EAD again sent a letter to the interior ministry for signing the MoU but the latter in February turned downthe request and said it “regrets its inability to grant the NOC for administrative reasons”.

Sources in the ECP said that outgoing secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan in April 2010 allowed the IFES to execute the task and sent a summary to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani explaining the reasons for involving the NGO in the process.

He said that in order to overhaul the entire election system on modern lines the ECP was looking for financial and administrative support of international organisations with emphasis on the updating of electoral rolls in collaboration with Nadra.

The summary said the USAID was extending financial and technical support through its implementing partner, the IFES, to the ECP in several areas to improve the electoral process. He said the USAID had requested for signing of a new MoU between the ECP and IFES to facilitate and regulate the technical assistance. The draft MoU was referred to the EAD for obtaining the views of the ministry of interior and vetting by the law ministry but for unknown reasons the clearance of the signing of the MoU was not being supported by the ministry.

It said a private firm, Kalsoft, which was engaged by the ECP for the project in 2007, “not only failed to deliver a fully functional computerised electoral roll system but also failed to provide error-free rolls”. Subsequently, it created a number of deficiencies in the existing electoral rolls. In order to rectify these problems, a great deal of financial and technical assistance was required.

The IFES then offered its technical help to bring the ECP out of the problem by removing deficiencies, errors and bugs in the CERS, the summary said.

With IFES support, the ECP initiated a pilot project with Nadra, providing them voters’ data of Rawalpindi and Chakwal districts. After the desired results, the ECP “intended to use the whole CNIC database of Nadra to update its existing computerised electoral rolls and this will be done with technical and financial assistance of the IFES”.

The secretary said the interior ministry’s refusal to support signing of the MoU and now indicating its refusal to support grant might result in an abrupt cessation of all the assistance activities. He said the CERS project required Rs1 billion funding and abrupt termination of work due to refusal of visas to technical personnel might create a serious situation for the ECP and cause a huge loss of money, time and efforts.

The secretary requested the prime minister to allow the IFES to continue its assistance till the job was finished.

The prime minister’s secretariat in May 2010 sought views of the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and law and justice and the EAD on the matter.

The EAD communicated to the secretariat the concerns of the ministries of interior and foreign affairs and informed the NGO that MoUs with international NGOs and donors are singed by the division once concurrence from all the stakeholders was received and the drafts were vetted by the law ministry. In the instant case, the interior ministry, a major stakeholder, had not conveyed its concurrence, it said.

The ECP secretary, when contacted, said the commission was getting technical support from the IFES but not providing it access to the national database.

He said the ECP had been left with no option but to accept the offer of the IFES because the rolls were contaminated and their authenticity was doubtful.

A central development room for the project has been set up on the second floor of the ECP building.

IFES officials were not willing to give their version on matter.

Nadra’s Deputy Chairman Tariq Malik said the IFES had not been engaged by the authority but was providing consultancy services to the ECP. “We are directly dealing with the ECP and providing them all the required data and information necessary for the electoral rolls.”