Description:

Tariq Malik, the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), made an unusual decision by inviting representatives of 150 political parties to the authority"s headquarters for an interactive session to explain how the authority continues to provide technical assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as it prepares the final electoral rolls for the upcoming general elections.

The NADRA chief ran this suggestion by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, who approved it, according to well-placed people informed of the development. Additionally, ECP will send a representative to these meetings.

The representatives have been suggested in a letter from the chairman to the leaders of all political parties in order to submit the questions and concerns during an interactive session.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Malik stated, "It is a mistake not to engage political parties that represent voters while providing technical help to ECP since citizens" engagement is important for successful digital common utilities and is the cornerstone of NADRA"s reforms."

"NADRA seeks to welcome all political parties in order to increase openness. Each political party interested in taking part will have a specialised session lasting an entire day. Similar letters sent to political parties stated that NADRA would also address particular questions and issues brought up by political players during these meetings.

In order to explain its role in the electoral process and to emphasise the significance of the election process, NADRA invited political parties to a "Open House Session on Electoral Rolls."

The parties have been requested to provide a convenient date and participant lists so that they can make the necessary preparations for holding interactive sessions following Eidul Azha.

According to the letter, NADRA has been helping the ECP, at their request, prepare computerised election rolls since 2011. The primary goal of the collaboration between ECP and NADRA, it was further said, was to ensure that there were few inclusion and exclusion errors in the production of electoral rolls based on the principle of "One Identity, One Person, One Vote."

On the basis of these electoral rolls, numerous general elections, local body elections, and by-elections have been held thus far. The final electoral rolls to be used in the general elections of 2023 are currently being created, while the current local body elections and by-polls are being held using electoral rolls prepared in 2017.

The letter stated, "NADRA"s participation in this partnership is restricted to providing operational and technical support on the request of ECP, which is solely responsible for preparing electoral rolls and registering voters under Article 219 of the constitution.

It was stated that as part of NADRA"s technical and operational support to ECP, newly issued CNIC data as well as deceased voter data as provided by the Civil Registration Management System (CRMS) to the electoral commission for independent verification and subsequent voter inclusion and exclusion are both provided to ECP.

Along with printing and delivering electoral rolls to district election commissioners" offices, it also offers address change data, applies business rules that have been approved by ECP, and hosts the SMS 8300 service.

ECP and NADRA are now working on creating the electoral rolls that will be utilised in the forthcoming general elections. Preliminary Electoral Rolls (PER) are posted at display centres for public inspection, and ECP has performed door-to-door verification of current electoral rolls as part of a periodic revision operation, according to the letter.

Electorate and political stakeholders may submit claims and objections to the PER, which will be decided by new authorities in a fair process. In accordance with established deadlines, ECP will issue Final Electoral Rolls (FER) after incorporating the decisions of the revising authorities. According to the terms of Section 37 of the Elections Act of 2017, the updating of the electoral rolls will continue even after the publication of the FER.