Post-poll headache: ECP excuses itself from thumbprint verification

Commission tells interior ministry that such a task is beyond its constitutional jurisdiction.

ISLAMABAD:

The government was left scrambling for other alternatives after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) formally declined on Thursday the interior ministry’s request to play a role in the verification of voters’ thumb impressions.

A senior ECP official told The Express Tribune that the decision was taken at a meeting of the commission headed by the acting chief election commissioner, Justice Nasirul Mulk.

“Members of the commission were unanimous about the decision,” the source said.

The letter sent by the ECP to the interior ministry clearly pointed out that the constitution did not have any provision that empowered the poll body to take part in such an exercise.



“The commission after an in-depth consideration has observed that the powers and functions of the commission envisaged by the constitution and the law do not seem to provide for exercising the powers or issuing any directions regarding the verification of thumb impressions,” stated the letter that the ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan sent to the interior ministry.

The letter also stated, “Any other action being undertaken by any executive authority of the federation or of a province, especially when such an exercise or action is being carried out or done as a result of an electoral activity conducted by the commission itself. In such a case only a neutral arbiter such as a court of law or a judicial tribunal can take cognisance of any dispute arising out of an electoral activity.”

It also pointed out that the exercise of verifying thumb impressions by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), and the compilation of a report was forensic analysis in nature and that the ECP was not supposed to become party to it.

Earlier, the interior ministry had sent a letter to the ECP regarding the issue that had been highlighted by the opposition, particularly after the government’s removal of NADRA chairman Tariq Malik.

Although the government has clarified on several counts that it has nothing to do with the arrangements for holding general elections, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on December 15 came up with the idea of handing over the supervision of the process of verification of thumb impressions to the ECP.

Earlier, the interior ministry, in its letter to the commission, had offered assistance and cooperation to the poll body for supervising the process.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2013.