System of e-voting for overseas Pakistanis would only be workable if political parties express confidence on the system: Tariq Malik
ISLAMABAD, Nov 24 (SABAH): Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Chairman Muhammad Tariq Malik has made it clear that a system of e-voting for the overseas Pakistanis would only be workable if political parties expressed confidence on the system.
In a media interview, Muhammad Tariq Malik said that it’s the right time for the implementation of the law that grants voting rights to overseas.
Muhammad Tariq Malik said, “We are waiting for two things, one is the responsibility of the Election Commission of Pakistan and secondly consensus of all political parties that this e-voting system is acceptable to them.”
Pakistan’s government recently managed to get passed a legislation for voting rights of overseas Pakistanis despite strong protests by the opposition.
Tariq Malik said that NADRA has the data of expatriates and according to that 6.5 million people would be eligible to cast their votes out of 8.6 million total overseas Pakistanis.
He also spoke about the reforms and initiatives of the NADRA which are facilitating digitalization of government departments. He says the NADRA recently developed a system Digital Power of Attorney (DPOA) which would provide a Power of Attorney certificate to a person through video conferencing.
Tariq Malik told that smart identity cards issuance to 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees is going well and that would facilitate them to get their children admission in schools, opening of bank accounts and others.
He says that for the new Afghans who want to come to Pakistan, a visa is essential and the government relaxed the visa policy and they can get an online visa in 24 hours.
Tariq Malik says that likewise Afghan refugees NADRA is issuing ID cards to Bihari community under the national alien registration law.
He says that the government wants to bring Bihari, Bangali and other communities into mainstream circles as they have been living in Pakistan for decades.
He says the word alien is not appropriate so their organization is consulting with the Law ministry, NGOs and other stakeholders to replace it from the ID card.
He says the organization is working to provide the national ID card as an important building block for a fully digital Pakistan. He says they are planning to start issuing digital ID cards by the start of next year which would help to resolve the fake ID cards issue at all. He says around 10 thousands fake ID cards were identified and 107 employees involved in this malpractice were terminated from service.