Thumbprint verification: Caretaker PM orders release of Rs90m for NADRA

According to Khoso, the system will be ready in ten days and thumbprints will be verified.

ISLAMABAD: The caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso ordered the release of Rs90m to NADRA for purchasing software to match thumbprints of voters, reported Express News on Tuesday.

According to Khoso, the system will be ready in 10 days and thumbprints will be verified.

The Election Commission of Pakistan announced on Monday that, for the first time ever, votes will be verified by matching thumbprints with the National Database and Regulatory Authority’s database, despite the absence of any provision in electoral laws for this purpose.

ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan and Chairman Nadra Tariq Malik jointly announced the decision.

Sources told The Express Tribune that Nadra had sent several letters to the ECP asking whether the commission wanted it to verify votes through thumbprints but there was no reply.

It had sent the first letter on June 19, 2012 and then on March 13, 2013 but there was no reply from the commission, sources added.

Now that the elections are over, that response has finally come.