ISLAMABAD: Taking exception to the “hasty passage” of the electronic voting machines (EVM) bill in the joint parliamentary joint session a day ago, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday warned that EVMs could be tampered with to manipulate election results.
“Polling results can be doctored through changing a chip in EVMs and that is the reason most countries have discarded these machines,” said Iqbal, while talking to media in Islamabad.
Iqbal’s remarks come a day after the parliament’s joint session approved 33 bills including the contentious Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021, which paved the way for the use of EVMs in the next general elections. The legislation drew strong criticism from the opposition, which claimed that the government was introducing electronic machines to doctor poll results for its own mileage.
Flanked by PPP’s Sherry Rehman and other lawmakers, Iqbal said the opposition believed the judiciary would uphold the Constitution of Pakistan.
The PML-N leader said Nov 17 would be remembered as the darkest day in the history of Pakistan, adding that the opposition would have to take the “parliament issue” to the court.
Speaking on the occasion, Sherry Rehman fired a broadside at the government, saying the treasury benches trampled democratic norms through its “artificial majority” and that too in the presence of the speaker.
“Whatever happened in yesterday’s session was worse than martial law and the government made an attempt to rig the next elections,” she added.
She said the opposition had offered to resolve differences through talks, “but the NA speaker backtracked on his word and bulldozed the session a day after writing a letter to the opposition.”