The Punjab Finance Department has refused to release funds for electronic voting mechanism in local body elections on Monday. According to details, the Finance Department decided to grant only Rs10 billion for manual voting though the Local Government Department had demanded Rs45 billion for electronic voting. However, the Finance Department has sent the case to the Cabinet because only cabinet has the authority to release these funds by making a cut on some development scheme. The Finance Department claimed that because the national exchequer is empty and there is a budget deficit, it is impossible to disburse such a large sum of money. Moreover, only Rs10 billion will be granted for the manual local body elections. The local government department will pay Rs10 billion to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP