Election rigging claims: Magnetic ink ‘not crucial for verification’

NADRA head says voters thumbprints can be confirmed whatever ink is used


Hasnaat Malik May 22, 2015
NADRA head says voters thumbprints can be confirmed whatever ink is used. PHOTO: CNBC

ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) can verify votes using the thumb impressions of the voters whether magnetic ink is used or not.

NADRA Chairman Usman Mubeen Yousaf has told the judicial panel investigating allegations of widespread rigging in the 2013 general elections that there is no need of magnetic ink to verify thumb impression of voters.

“We do not have the expertise to check whether the ink was magnetic or not, as it does not bear any effect on the results of fingerprint verification process,” Yousaf told the three-judge commission, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk.



On a query of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, the NADRA chairman said his authority had submitted 39 reports to different election tribunals about the verification of thumb impressions, wherein 97% readable impressions were valid votes.

“If thumb impressions are not readable, we check the identity card number if it is valid and from within the particular constituency,” he said. NADRA had found through this process that voters were 100% genuine.

He added that unverified thumb impression did not mean the vote was fake, but admitted that the authority had no expertise in checking fingerprints. NADRA employs the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) for verification of fingerprints.

He said the AFIS system was introduced round about 2005. For the biometric verification process, people were asked to come to NADRA centres to give fresh thumbprints and over 681,000 got themselves verified.

On a query of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) counsel, Yousaf replied that thumb impressions might not be readable if thumb was unclean or due to other reasons like cuts, scratches or lines, henna on women’s hands, wrinkles due to age or improper placement on the paper.

Talking to The Express Tribune, PTI’s Ishaq Khan Khakwani pointed out a contradiction in the statements of the current and former NADRA chairmen. The ex-chairman, Tariq Malik, had testified that use of magnetic ink was necessary for verification of thumb impression.

Khakwani, the PTI task force chairman, questioned the stance of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which had sent six samples of ink to NADRA for approval.

He believed a complete collusion of the ECP with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on this matter.

Earlier, Pirzada said before the judges that there should be a clarification that how many ballot papers were printed for the national and provincial assembly constituencies and what were the demands of the returning officers. The commission will resume the hearing today (Friday).

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22nd, 2015. 

COMMENTS (2)

Kamran Akmal | 8 years ago | Reply @Ridwan: Hats off to your credibility that you are believing all this non sense
Ridwan | 8 years ago | Reply PTI is starting to remind me of the anti-vaccine movement; no matter what the facts really are, they will continue to believe whatever they want, and make whatever claim they wish.
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