July 11, 2008	Friday	Rajab 7, 1429

KARACHI, July 10: Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (PEC) Kanwar Mohammed Dilshad has said that the commission, in collaboration with IFES and funding by the US and other donor agencies, is making all out efforts to establish a highly sophisticated IT infrastructure at the Election Commission Secretariat, Islamabad, and the provincial headquarters.

This will certainly bring about a revolution in the electoral management system in Pakistan, he said while chairing a meeting in the office of the Provincial Election Commission (PEC) here on Thursday.

He said that management information and geographical information systems were also being installed and this would make it possible for Pakistan to upgrade its electoral system to international standards by achieve the objective of transparency and accuracy.

He told the meeting that the delivery of high-end-IT equipment for establishing additional IT infrastructure at the Election Commission Secretariat, Islamabad, and all the provincial headquarters of the Election Commission had commenced.

The infrastructure, being procured by the IFES on behalf of the USAID for the computerisation of Pakistan’s electoral system, was based on modern IT infrastructure and would provide a solid foundation for the successful implementation and operation of the system with a professional approach. “This will be a milestone in the history of Pakistan’s electoral system,” he said.

The meeting was given a briefing about the IT equipment being provided free of cost to Pakistan as the funding had been provided by the USAID through the IFES.

Provincial Election Commissioner, Sindh, Chaudhry Qamar-uz-Zaman informed the meeting that the IT wing at the provincial headquarter office had successfully developed ElMS (employees information and management system) which would enable the PEC to have an updated data of all the employees serving in Sindh province. This would be a role model for other provinces as well, he added.

He also made mention of the availability of the IT infrastructure already in place at the PEC Sindh headquarter office and the provision of 512KB per second connectivity between the PEC’s Islamabad secretariat and its provincial headquarters.

The meeting was told that the upgradation was made possible by the relentless efforts made by the Chief Election Commissioner, Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq, and the PEC team working under his leadership.

Mr Dilshad expressed the hope that Pakistan would be the first country in the world to provide all electoral information/data on the web, besides the cellular phones networks.

The meeting was also attended by PEC officials S. Nasir Abbas, Tanveer Zaki, Abdul Qadir, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Najeeb, M.A. Saleem, Ms Qamar Sultana Rizvi, S.M. Yakoob, Nadeem Haider, Mohammad Imran, Fiyaz Memon, and Mohammad Naveed.—APP