Mr. Muhammad Khizer Aziz
Director General (IT Policy & Planning)
Mr. Muhammad Khizer Aziz is Masters in Computer Science with more than 28 years’ experience in Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and Digital Electoral Technologies including 21 years’ service in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He has accomplished several IT technical advance courses from various reputed national and international professional institutions including leadership program from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Presently, Mr. Aziz is serving as Head of the Information Technology Wing of the Election Commission of Pakistan. He was initially appointed as Director (IT) in October, 2004 and later, he was elevated as Director General (IT) in January, 2012.
As per his job descriptions, he advises the Hon'ble Election Commission on all aspects of technology and innovation. He has vast experience in conversion of vision of the Commission into digital transformation and its successful implementation in General Elections (2008, 2013, 2018 & 2024) and subsequent bye-elections, all Senate Elections from year 2005 to-date and Local Government Elections (2005, 2015, 2017 and 2022). He is a specialist having vast experience in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), Biometric Verification Machine (BVM), Overseas Voting (I-Voting), Information Security, Change Management, Result Management System (RMS), Geographical Information System (GIS), Innovative Technologies, Data Analysis, Research and Report writing, SOP development and its implementation, impart technical trainings to the stakeholders. Moreover, he used to give briefings to different national, international and diplomatic delegations, stakeholders, CSOs, iNGOs, NGOs, national & international media on technological matters.
He represented the country in various International Conferences, Seminars, Workshops and delivered lectures / papers on different topics of use technologies in Elections along with its challenges and feasible solutions. He is author of various research papers and pilot project reports that are also available on ECP’s website. He officially visited Brazil, France, South Africa, Belgium, Malaysia, India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to participate in the Seminars. He used to deliver lectures on technologies in Pakistan Electoral Academy for Democratic Practices, Research and Management (PADRAM), Universities, government organizations and various Committees of the Parliament.
Based on his recommendation, the Hon’ble Election Commission made available Voters’ data (Electoral Rolls) on 8300 Short Message Service (SMS) which 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 acknowledged and appreciated the technological efforts made by the ECP 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 also recognized the 8300 SMS service which has been successfully operational since February 2012. The service has been declared the biggest voters’ database, comprising 118 million voters for mobile customers of 169 million in the country at that time. Currently, about 134 million database of voters are placed on ECP’s prestigious global award winning SMS 8300 Service for over 180 million mobile customers of the country. The said service is highly secured and available 24/7/365.
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