Polls fair, forensic audit needed to ascertain RTS collapse: Minister
islamabad — Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said the July 25 general elections were free and fair yet the controversy surrounding the failure of the Result Transmission System (RTS) made them controversial.
Speaking at a press conference along with PTI Senator Azam Swati, he said there was a need to hold a forensic audit of the server at the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) to check whether it malfunctioned or was intentionally closed.
Fawad said his party believed in a free and fair electoral system and desired that no one should be able to raise finger towards its transparency. He reminded that it was Pakistan cricket team’s captain Imran Khan who introduced the concept
of neutral umpires in international cricket and he strongly believed in the transparency of the electoral process of the country.
He said that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif spent billions of rupees on his foreign tours and always stayed in London at the expense of tax payers money. Besides Nawaz Sharif, his sons Hussain, Hassan and daughter Maryam Nawaz
illegally spent Rs17,148,603 on their trips using official aircraft.
Senator Azam Swati said the July 25 elections should not be made controversial for the failure of RTS as all returning officers have the images of Form 45 with them which could not be changed, tempered or deleted.
“How come Shahbaz Sharif got the information about its malfunctioning and failure at midnight when even the Election Commission was not aware of it,” Azam Swati questioned.
He said the RTS servers were in possession of Nadra and it was necessary to hold forensic audit of the three servers to ascertain if the system collapsed or it was intentionally closed down.
He claimed that by 2am election night, 42,862 images of the From 45 had been transmitted which constituted 51 per cent of the results while only 91 complaints were reported.
Fawad said that Nadra had the control of the entire system and the manner in which its chairman and other high-ups were hired by the previous government raised many questions. —