Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nasir on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the failure of the Result Transmission System (RTS) during the July 25 election.
Hearing a petition filed by Abida Raja, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate who contested the election on a reserved seat, Justice Nisar lambasted the electoral body over RTS failure.
He said the ECP spent millions on the technology yet it failed, adding that he repeatedly telephoned the chief election commissioner on the polling day but he didn’t receive a reply.
The chief justice, while allowing the petitioner to contest on a reserved seat, said Raja had requested a vote transfer on April 23 but the ECP did not do anything in this regard.
The ECP was to pay Rs 170 million to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) despite the collapse of the newly developed Result Transmission System (RTS).
Last week, the ECP sent a letter to the Cabinet Division directing it to conduct an inquiry into RTS failure.
According to a letter sent to the Cabinet Division, the ECP directed the Cabinet Division to constitute an inquiry committee, comprising experts from National Telecommunication and Information Technology Security Board (NTITSB) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and finalise the inquiry report within one month.
According to the terms of reference (TORs) of inquiry, the committee will thoroughly analyse RTS, fix responsibility of its failure and also make recommendations for future course of action.
Earlier, an official of ECP while giving reasons of RTS failure said that the system could not be tested due to shortage of time. He said that it was the demand of parliamentarians to launch and practice RTS in election 2018.
“The commission was investigating those complaints where results on a piece of plain paper were released instead of Form-45. Sufficient copies of the forms were available with the commission,” he had added.
Published in Daily Times, August 8th 2018.
