ISLAMABAD: There is no written record of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s order to the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) for the production of magnetic ink that was to be used in the general election of 2013, a matter that has become a bone of contention between all the institutions involved in the electoral process.

A recent meeting of the commission, chaired by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, was told that there was no written record available of the order for the ink, because the order was given verbally.

PCSIR Director General Dr Naimat Ali Rizvi claimed at a meeting held on Friday that the then Additional Secretary ECP Mohammad Afzal Khan had verbally conveyed to Dr Nighat Afzal – a PCSIR official – the specifications of the ink required to be produced as part of the plan to check bogus votes through biometric verification.

Afzal Khan is the same man who some weeks ago garnered the national spotlight when he joined the protesting Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and made several TV appearances, alleging massive wrongdoing in the elections. At the time, when asked by a talk show host, he confessed he had no evidence to back up his claims.

However, when Dawn got in touch with Mr Khan, he denied the assertion, saying that such matters were not communicated verbally and set procedures are in place for such cases, which are strictly followed.

He did admit to speaking to Dr Nighat, but said he had merely negotiated the price of the ink with her and managed to get it to a reasonable sum.

A final decision regarding the ink’s procurement was to be taken by the chief executive and in his position as additional secretary, he was only a deputy head for administrative tasks.

He told Dawn that with orders of this kind, files are moved and the officers’ notes, from section officers right up to the chief executive level, are considered before formally according approval.

A senior official from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) told Dawn that the authority’s role was limited to recommending the properties of the ink based on the requirements of the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) that Nadra had designed.

He said Nadra had originally proposed the ECP use digital scanners to capture voters’ fingerprints, but that could not be integrated with manual voting systems and required the presence of an electronic voting system. In the absence of electronic voting machines, ECP had no other option but to manually acquire voters’ fingerprints on the ballots’ counterfoils, in accordance with the electoral laws.

He said that magnetic ink had been proposed to streamline the procedure of capturing fingerprints . He said that the ink used needed to have certain specific properties. These included a quick drying time, the ability to retain its shape and integrity despite repeated contact with other sheets of paper, non-toxicity for safe use on human hands and so on. The intended end-product, the Nadra official told Dawn, was a no-smear ink that would create impressions containing enough ridge information, which could be scanned by the AFIS.

Published in Dawn, September 28th , 2014