Govt wants ECP to release tender for EVMs purchase

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry once again urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to release a tender for procurement of electronic voting machines (EVMs), ARY News reported on Tuesday.

“Cabinet has tasked Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Information Technology to assist ECP for purchase of 4000 voting machines in connection with upcoming local government elections in Islamabad,” he told media following a meeting of the federal cabinet.

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 cabinet approved the Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF) 2020-25.

Under the trade policy, various sectors including the traditional sectors like textile, leather, surgical instruments, sports goods, carpets, rice, cutlery and developmental sectors including engineering goods such as auto parts, pharmaceuticals, marble and minerals, processed food and beverages, footwear, gems and jewelry, chemicals, meat and poultry, fruits and vegetables, seafood and services sector would be focused on for the enhancement of exports.

Also Read: Setback for PTI on home turf as JUI-F leads local government polls in KP

On KP local government polls, the minister said the cabinet did not discuss recently concluded local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it was a federal cabinet meeting, not a meeting of PTI’s core committee.

“We will talk about local body elections in the party’s core committee meeting,” he said and added that it was party’s own mistakes that had given chance to other parties to grab seats in LG polls.

The federal minister further said: “The rise of extremist political parties such as the recently unbanned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam would ultimately harm the country.

He claimed the ruling PTI was the only “national party” in the country.

The minister was of the view that JUI-F had ruined the education and finance sectors when it was in power in KP in 2002, adding that the rise of parties such as the TLP and JUI-F would ultimately harm the country.

‘PTI paid price for mistakes’

Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) paid the price for mistakes it made in Sunday’s first phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

“PTI made mistakes in 1st phase of KP LG elections & paid the price. Wrong candidate selection was a major cause,” Prime Minister Khan tweeted.

“From now on I will personally be overseeing PTI’s LG election strategy in 2nd phase of KP LG elections & LG elections across Pak. InshaAllah PTI will come out stronger.”

According to the provisional results declared by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the JUI-F managed to grab the highest number of mayor /chairman seats in the elections for 39 tehsils.