Access to ECP data: Court orders PTI to submit original documents in three days

PTI has sought voters’ details from ECP to prepare lists for intra-party polls

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday sought original documents from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) while hearing a petition filed by the party seeking access to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s voters’ data for its intra-party elections.

IHC registrar office, however, had objected saying neither the petitioner had submitted an authority letter issued to him by the party nor the original reply of the ECP turning down the party’s requests. Now the petitioner has been directed to submit both the documents within three days.

PTI intra-party chief election commissioner Tasneem Noorani has requested the court to direct the ECP to grant him access to the server for data verification of party members and provide a soft copy of voters’ details. He has listed ECP as a respondent in the case.

Noorani’s counsel Farrukh Dall said the PTI election body had decided to register members through their mobile phones on “one phone, one vote” basis by asking them to submit their names and CNIC numbers.

The data will be received through telephone short code 9008, allotted to PTI by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, he said. The party needed members’ particulars, including census code. These particulars, he said, ECP sends to every voter through its 8300 text service.

The petitioner has said that obtaining data separately for every individual was a cumbersome process and thus requested the ECP to allow access to the record.

The election commission, he said, turned down all the requests.

Dall argued that there was no legal bar to permitting access to the server, yet the ECP refused PTI requests.

If granted access, he maintained, a political party for the first time will be able to compile credible lists of its members with geographical distribution. In addition, chances of members registering themselves in union councils, tehsils and districts of their choice will be obviated, he maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2015.