Election Commission of Pakistan

Election Commission of Pakistan

Emblem of the Election Commission of Pakistan
ECP Headquarters at Islamabad
Agency overview
Formed	23 March 1956; 68 years ago (1956-03-23)[1]
Jurisdiction	Pakistan
Headquarters	Sector G5/2, Constitution Avenue, Islamabad
Motto	Free, Fair, Impartial
Agency executive	Sikandar Sultan Raja, Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan
Website	ecp.gov.pk

The Election Commission of Pakistan^[a] (ECP) is an independent, autonomous, permanent and constitutionally established federal body responsible for organizing and conducting elections to the national parliament, provincial legislatures, local governments, and the office of president of Pakistan, as well as the delimitation of constituencies and preparation of electoral rolls. As per the principles outlined in the Constitution of Pakistan, the Commission makes such arrangements as needed to ensure that the election is conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law, and guard against corrupt practices. The Election Commission was formed on 23 March 1956.

The Chief Election Commissioner and four Members, each from one of the four provinces (Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) of the country, form the five-member panel of the Election Commission. The current Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan is Sikandar Sultan Raja.^[2] The General Elections 2018 and General Elections 2024 were performed under the Elections Act 2017, which was passed by the National Assembly on 2 October 2017.^[3]

Based on recommendation, the Hon’ Election Commission made available Voters’ data (Electoral Rolls) on 8300 Short Message Service (SMS) gained national and international acceptance and appreciation by making Pakistan pioneer in the World. The London based international organization named as International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) awarded ECP/Pakistan two International Awards i.e ‘Use of Innovative Technology Award’ and ‘Accessibility Award’ in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 2013 during an international competition. Similarly, another international award was given to the ECP on preparing voters list following international standards based on Unique Identifier i.e CNIC (One CNIC, One Vote) in Cape Town, South Africa, December 2014.

The Commonwealth organization in its Report March 2020 ("Cybersecurity in Elections") acknowledged and appreciated the technological efforts made by the ECP / Pakistan by conducting various pilot projects on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), Biometric Verification Machines (BVM) and Overseas Voting using Internet mode of voting in appropriated manner. In the same report, The Commonwealth Org also recognized the 8300 SMS service which has been successfully operational since February 2012. The service has been declared the biggest voters’ database, comprising more than 128.8 million voters for mobile customers of 190 million in the country. Currently, more than 128.8 million database of voters are placed on ECP’s prestigious SMS (8300) for over 190 million mobile customers of the country. The said service is highly secured and available 24/7/365.

London based ICPS awarded two International Awards to ECP (Pakistan) being pioneer in the World as to declared said service for public at large keeping the highest standards of individual privacy and security of the data. So far now, about more than 300 million hits received over 8300 SMS and people checked their voting details.

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