EVMs to be procured for Punjab, Islamabad LG polls: Fawad Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Tuesday that the federal cabinet had approved the release of funds for procurement of electronic voting machines (EVMs) ahead of local government elections in Punjab and Islamabad, ARY News reported.

Briefing media on decisions taken in cabinet meeting, which met in Islamabad with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, the information minister said that government will provide funds to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for purchase of electronic voting machines.

“Cabinet today approved the purchase of 4000 voting machines in connection with upcoming local government elections in Islamabad,” he said and added that EVMs would also be procured for LG polls in Punjab.

He further said that ECP had asked the Ministry of Science and Technology to provide electronic voting machines and the government was fully ready to release funds in this regard.

‘Omicron threat’

Speaking on rising Omicron cases in the country, Fawad Chaudhry said that NCOC head Asad Umar and Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood briefed the federal cabinet on current Covid-19 situation in the country.

“Omicron cases are increasing in the country,” said Chaudhry and appealed to people to Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) to avoid the further spread of the Omicron Covid variant.

While sharing details about vaccination, he maintained that the federal government had spent Rs2 billion for Covid-19 vaccines procurement. He also criticized Sindh government for scoring points on Covid vaccination programme.

“Sindh failed to purchase a single Covid-19 vaccine,” he said and added that they [Sindh govt] criticised the crucial issue of public health for political point scoring.

Foreign funding case

Talking about the ongoing foreign funding case in ECP, Chaudhry Fawad said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has submitted all records of funding before the scrutiny committee of ECP.

“Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is the only political party which has an elaborate system of funding and accounting,” he said and demanded that the scrutiny committees should immediately submit their reports regarding PML (N) and the PPP to Election Commission.

He also urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to probe and make public the funding sources of other political organisations.

Sehat Card

Talking about the Health Card programme, which was recently launched in Punjab after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the information minister was of the view that the government will spend Rs400bn on the health card scheme in Punjab. He said the initiative is being launched gradually in Punjab.

“The entire population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had already been provided health care facility,” said Fawad and added that family members registered with NADRA can get treatment up to Rs1 million from all government and designated private hospitals.

The minister also requested the Sindh government to launch ‘Sehat Sahulat Programme’ for the people of Sindh. “It’s my request to Sindh government to launch health card scheme for people of Sindh. This is the time to serve people not to do politics on health issue.”

On inflation, the minister claimed that prices of essential items are decreasing, which is a good omen.