ISLAMABAD – Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan onMonday held a meeting to discuss the scrutiny of nomination papers ofelection candidates. Officials of National Database and RegistrationAuthority (Nadra), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Water and PowerDevelopment Authority (Wapda) and power and gas utilities attended themeeting on the request of the ECP.

The CEC said that the nomination papers will be scrutinised in a swift wayand as per Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. An eight-day timelinehas been set for the process during the meeting, while the also includedthe FIA in the process for the first time, Geo News reported.

Taking benefit from the technology, the ECP has decided to conduct onlinescrutiny of the candidates in the upcoming 2018 general election, enablingreturning officer to get instant information if any applicant is defaulting.

ECP Information Technology DG Khizer Aziz, while briefing the meeting, saidROs would send the candidate’s name, identity card number and constituencyname to the government institutions. The officers would get details aboutthe candidates online.

The ECP is expected to receive around 30,000 nomination papers as it hadreceived 26,000 in 2013 elections, the DG said.

The election body also sought recommendations from the governmentdepartments to make the process more speedy in order to avoid backlog.