Islamabad - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is considering scraping a Rs35 billion proposed project to use the most modern biometric voting system for conducting 2018 general elections largely out of fears of data-hacking, official sources said.

The sources told The Nation on Tuesday that the powerful decision-making Planning Committee of the Commission which is scheduled to meet on Thursday has proposed to review the decision about use of electronic voting machines (EVMS) and biometric verification machines (BVMs) in the next general elections. The sources said that Planning Commission will also review ongoing efforts for conducting the next general elections in such manner that no one could raise fingers at about its transparency and fairness which many political leaders and experts say would be the fundamental question in the upcoming elections.

The sources in the ECP said that the hackers can sabotage election process, in the same way, the data hacking was done at large in the recent elections in France and also in other countries including the US, Russia as well as India.

The ECP is currently running a pilot project costing more than Rs35 million with 100 EVMs it had recently acquired to conduct all types of elections on an experimental basis, but now it has proposed to revisit the plan which is also part of the ECP’s Strategic Plan it had evolved with the consensus of all the stakeholders.

Political players especially Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan have consistently criticised the last general elections, accusing the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz of rigging, and the fate of the political battle was eventually decided by a high-level inquiry commission constituted by the Supreme Court.