ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan has directed all provinces to construct strong rooms in different cities to ensure safety of sensitive election material.
During the last general election, as per practice, the ECP stored sensitive material in district treasuries but it failed to ensure their safety, a top official of the authority told Geo News.
The electoral body faced embarrassment when a bench, headed by former Chief Justice Justice Nasirul Mulk, of the apex court’s five judge was hearing an electoral rigging case and asked the body to produce the sensitive material.
The electoral had body failed to produce forms 14, 15, 16 and 17, which are related to the election results of a specific constituency after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s legal team alleged that the elections’ results were tempered with.
Following Nasirul Mulk led commission’s verdict, the ECP agreed that it should have its own storage facility for safe and appropriate custody of election material.
In a document related to election preparations, titled ‘Road to General Elections 2018’, the electoral body has set the target of establishing 29 storage rooms before the election, next year. In a letter, the electoral body also advised provinces to gear up for identification of required buildings.
Each province has been given a target to create at least five storage rooms. Previous year, about eight strong rooms were approved in Gujranwala, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Shaheed Benazir Abad, Kohat, Bannu, Makran and Nasirabad.
Officials in ECP told Geo News that provinces have yet to establish any strong room for the storage for the preservation of sensitive data.
Currently, there are 123 offices of District Election Commissioners, seven Agency Election Commissioners, 29 Regional Election Commissioners and four election commissioners. Out of these 163 offices, only five offices are housed in official buildings whereas the rest of the offices are housed in rented buildings.
A 2016 ECP survey revealed that 74 offices were located in buildings with no parking facilities, safe access or security arrangements. The electoral body could only acquire 12 plots for construction of offices.