ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday constituted as many as three separate committees to assess the working mechanisms for e-voting in tandem with modern technological techniques for the next elections, sources informed Bol News.

The committees are mandated to respectively look into the effective working mechanism for electronic voting machines, internet voting, and provision of resources from the government.

Read more: EVMs: a costly affair

The ECP has directed officials to immediately provide a detailed report on their working.

At the joint session of the parliament on November 17, the government, backed by its allies’, passed amendments to the Elections Act, 2017, which allows usage of the EVMs and gives right to overseas Pakistanis to vote in the general elections.

Earlier, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Omar Hamid Khan had said that even though the bill regarding electronic voting machines (EVMs) has passed, the ECP is not bound to hold elections according to it.

“It took India 20 years and Brazil 22 years to get themselves on the machines. It will also take us a while to get these machines up and running,” Omar Hamid Khan said briefing a meeting of the members of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice, chaired by Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) MNA Riaz Fatyana.

The secretary said it was not essential for the election commission to use the machines immediately after the bill was passed. “We are under no obligation to use the machines,” he said.