Election Commission has directed that the charges for thumb verification be charged from the candidates. NADRA has indicated that it will charge rupees ten for each thumb verification. NADRA has already been sanctioned 900 million rupees for upgrading its software by the caretaker government and therefore, charging the candidates for this exercise appears to be an effort to discourage them from asking for recount and verification. An argument in favour of this decision could be that candidates who were not even in the race may ask for recount to delay the process through unnecessary verification.
An internationally accepted solution is that candidates asking for recount should be made to pay, in case the recount does not change the results. In case the recount changes the result, the candidate who loses in the recount should be made to pay. In addition action should also be taken against those who were responsible for the error- deliberately or unintentional. I wonder if any action has been taken against anyone for declaring Ch. Nisar a winner in PA elections, when he lost in the recount.
F REHMAN,
Islamabad, May 22.