PM Imran Khan seeks feasibility report on e-voting to curb corruption

• PM Imran Khan says electronic voting was essential to ensure transparency in the next general elections.
• PM Imran says he wants the process to start ahead of time as the govt wants next general elections to be fair and transparent.
• PM Imran Khan says Senate elections exposed how political leaders use money to buy votes.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday directed government officials to prepare a feasibility report on electronic voting to end corruption in elections as seen in the recent Senate polls.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that electronic voting is essential to curb corruption and ensure transparency in the next general elections.

The prime minister said this while addressing a meeting of the federal cabinet, adding that all necessary actions would be taken to end corruption in elections as witnessed in the recent Senate polls.

“We want next general elections to be fair and transparent and thus want to initiate the e-voting process well ahead of time,” said the PM.

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The prime minister also directed the government to work out the details for the purchase of electronic voting machines (EVMs). He also directed officials to share regular updates with him on the progress of the project.

He said the introduction of online voting for overseas Pakistanis was also a matter of priority.

“Senate elections exposed how political leaders use money to buy votes,” said PM Imran Khan

He said politicians including Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, through money-laundering, transferred the national wealth to their bank accounts abroad.

Read more: Opposition will cry if open balloting is not held in Senate elections, says PM Imran Khan

He mentioned a report of the Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (FACTI) which revealed that that $1 trillion was taken out each year from the poor countries and was shifted to developed states.

Presently, he said, $7 trillion of the stolen assets were parked in these safe havens, causing irreparable loss to developing countries like Pakistan.

The prime minister said money-laundering severely weakened a country’s institutions.

He said during past tenures, the ruling parties launched projects with mega kickbacks and resultantly, the common man paid the price in the form of inflation and heavy loans.

“Such politicians normalize corruption in a society, bribe media houses and remove checks and balances to ease their money-laundering chain,” he said.

He said a society that set such standards of corruption faced an ethical downfall, adding "a nation gets destroyed when it loses the ability to ensure socio-economic justice.