National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Chairperson Tariq Malik on Friday clarified that the recent controversy over the i-voting system and a letter written to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) could be the result of a “misunderstanding”.
The NADRA head was responding to media queries at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.
The ECP had taken strong notice of the tone adopted in a letter penned by the NADRA chairman to the electoral body.
“The Election Commission is a constitutional body and we are not ordering them. They can reprimand us,” Malik said.
He said that this could be a result of a misunderstanding as they prepared a strategy and shared a project plan on the ECP’s directives. “The ECP gave a go ahead verbally after which the IT department sought permission. Technical people talk in technical terms and that could be the reason of a misunderstanding between the two state institutions.”
Malik said he would clear the matter when he returns to the country and added, “We had been cooperating with each other extensively.”
On Thursday, it was reported that the ECP regretted the tone adopted by Malik in a recent letter penned about the progress on the i-voting system.
Malik, in the letter to the electoral body, asked it to make progress on the proposed system on i-voting.
The ECP, responding to the letter, stated that it is the responsibility of the commission to work on the new electoral system, but the tone adopted in the letter by NADRA is regrettable. “The letter gave the impression like ECP is a subordinate [office] of NADRA,” the letter read and added that the language used by the NADRA chairperson made it look like he was giving orders to the ECP.
