Pre-election woes: ‘Unverifiable ID cards challenge smooth polling’

Senate panel chief says three million ID holders had not provided photos or biometrics.

ISLAMABAD: The head of a special parliamentary committee on election issues warned on Friday that the voting process in the coming elections could become muddled by the issuance of three million identity cards without photographs or biometrics.

However, the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) disputed the claim.

Senator Ishaq Dar, who is serving as the chairman of the parliamentary committee, made these comments during a visit to the NADRA headquarters here on Friday. “Much has been done, yet a lot [more] needs to be done to make the next elections free and fair,” Senator Dar told reporters.

Earlier, Senator Sughra Imam also pointed out that over three million female ID card holders, who obtained their cards before 2005, had not provided their pictures. Neither were their thumb impressions available on these cards as no biometrics system was available then.



However, NADRA Chairman Tariq Malik rejected Senator Dar’s claims in his briefing to the committee. Malik told the committee that most women provided their thumb impressions and pictures during the renewal of CNIC cards.

He added that NADRA has also obtained their identifying data in the form of manual thumb impressions and demographical profiles and that the actual number of women without biometrics data would be in thousands and not in millions.

Furthermore, parliamentary committee members also pointed out that 400,000 voter identities were unverified as voters were not available at their addresses when NADRA officials visited.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2012.