ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has received the first case from Punjab which requires verification of thumb impressions taken during the polling on May 11.
The case pertains to the NA-118 constituency of Lahore where PML-N candidate Muhammad Riaz Malik was declared winner in the May general elections and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s candidate Hamid Zaman the runner-up.
However, Mr Zaman accused Mr Malik of rigging the elections in collusion with the government machinery, police, presiding officers and polling agents. He said the verification of voters’ thumbprints would prove that bogus ballots were polled in large numbers.
Since the case relates to Lahore — a stronghold of the Sharif brothers — Nadra is reportedly in a fix. If the authority discharges its duty in a fair manner, it may annoy its boss, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
Sources in the Crisis Management Cell of the ministry said complaints had been filed by Tariq Malik, the chairman of Nadra, that his family had been receiving anonymous calls about dire consequences much before Nov 18, when the Lahore Election Tribunal passed the order regarding verification of thumbprints. Callers had been pressing the Nadra chief not to initiate the verification process.
Phone numbers and other details regarding the calls had been received from Nadra office with a request to investigate the matter on priority basis and deal with it accordingly.
Sources said the Nadra chief had now sent a fresh complaint about a threatening letter which too warned of dire consequences if the verification exercise was undertaken. The sources added the letter was posted from F-8 Post Office in Islamabad on Nov 19.
The SIMs of three numbers by which calls were made had been issued to three different people who have permanent residences in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. One of the SIMs is in the name of a person whose CNIC shows his temporary address in sector F-6/3, Islamabad.
On the other hand, a verification exercise of some national and provincial constituencies in Sindh revealed a single person casting around 44 votes at different polling stations, along with the disclosure that magnetised ink was also not used.
Since the exercise remained limited to Sindh, there looms large a question as to whether the magnetised ink was used elsewhere in the country, or the ink stock was substandard.
The first thumb verification case from Punjab may be revealing if allowed to complete without political interference.
The thumb impressions were taken on electoral rolls and counterfoils to help the Election Tribunal in post-election scenario about multiple voting by an individual after due forensic analysis from Nadra’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System.
The aim was for speedy disposal of election petitions and confidence building among public about the democratic process.
Similarly, the recent decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan to use non-magnetised ink in the local bodies’ elections has sparked a controversy because the critics say that thumb verification would not be possible this time round.
The authorities had decided to use ink without iron particles during the upcoming elections because they wanted to cut costs.