ISLAMABAD: National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has refuted the allegations made by Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan that the authority runs a secret cell in the basement of a building in Islamabad.

In a statement, Nadra spokesman said that two floors in Comsats building were hired in April 2011 to carry out the printing of the electoral rolls for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which is still under Nadra’s use.

Reports about manipulation of Nadra data ring alarm bells

“Nadra entered into an agreement with Election Commission of Pakistan in 2011 to digitise and prepare computerised electoral rolls, at a cost of Rs750 million, and the contract is still valid,” a statement issued on Wednesday said.

The statement also said that Nadra further outsourced the printing work to a private company, National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT), through an open-tender process.

Heavy-duty printers were installed at the Comsats building, which were used to print only electoral rolls, including photo electoral rolls that were used in the 2013 general elections.

The statement clarified that the printing facility is managed by NIFT, not Nadra.

Authority says it only used the building to print electoral rolls, while ballot papers were printed by ECP

It is not a printing press and has never been used for printing of ballot papers or any other election material, it said.

“Moreover, the printing facility has not been functional since December, after the local government elections of Balochistan, held on December 7.”

Nadra said the ECP had assigned the task of printing the ballot papers to the Printing Press of Pakistan, at their facilities in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, under the supervision of Pakistan Army.

Nadra or NIFT were never involved in printing the ballot papers, the authority said.

Nadra spokesman added that according to ECP directives, Nadra is also carrying out the process of digitising thumb verification in the presence of an Election Tribunal representative. For this purpose, the authority is again utilising the same building.

Once the scanning is complete, the election material is returned to the corresponding Election Tribunal through its representative, he added.

He said: “Nadra has been assigned the task of verifying fingerprints by the Election Tribunal for 36 constituencies all over the country.”

Fifteen constituencies are for the National Assembly seats while 21 of provincial assemblies.

Giving details of thumb verification, Nadra’s statement said that the authority had returned the election material for 26 constituencies to the concerning election tribunals, after submitting their report.

The election material pertaining to 10 constituencies, where the work is still under process or a stay has been granted, is in the possession of National Database and Registration Authority.

The authority said that in all such cases proper documents were provided to the respective Election Tribunal in advance, along with their serial numbers and counts.

There is no question of misappropriating sensitive election material, as its counting is carried out in the presence of an Election Tribunal representative, the statement said.

Moreover, each report submitted by Nadra is subjected to cross-examination by the petitioner’s and respondent’s counsel.

Nadra has successfully defended all its submitted reports in respective Election Tribunal.

Published in Dawn, July 17th , 2014