Govt mulls reserved seats for overseas Pakistanis

The new government is considering giving reserved seats to overseas Pakistanis instead of letting them cast their ballots through i-voting in the next general elections.

It is also deciding against using electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the next general polls as newly appointed Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar believes that a pilot project is necessary before putting them to use.

The new government has kicked off work on electoral reforms and sought suggestions from the coalition partners.

The law ministry has started taking stock of the legislation carried out during the previous PTI regime.

Tarar says that being a poor country, it is not possible for Pakistan to set up polling stations all over the world. Even in embassies and consulates, voting on such a large scale is not possible.

Last year, the previous PTI regime had stepped up the process of introducing electoral reforms in the country.

President Arif Alvi had asked the stakeholders to prepare a prototype of the EVMs for the lawmakers.

Chaired a meeting of the subcommittee on emerging technologies on i-voting at the Presidency, Alvi had underlined the need for expediting the i-voting process for overseas Pakistanis.

He had added that he would engage parliamentarians and members of other political parties for their support for the introduction of EVMs in the upcoming general elections.

Read More: Ready to use EVMs in Punjab LG polls: ECP

In November last year, the government and its allies had pulled off a victory against the opposition during a joint sitting of parliament by succeeding in passing the bills that pave the way for holding the next general elections in the country through the use of EVMs and giving around nine million overseas Pakistanis the right to cast their ballots in the 2023 polls though i-voting.

Surprisingly, the legislation pertaining to the electoral reforms -- The Election (Amendment) Bill, 2021 -- was deferred and only the bills related to using the EVMs and enabling overseas Pakistanis use i-voting were passed.

The opposition parties had condemned the PTI-led government for “hurriedly” passing bills during the joint sitting, claiming that EVMs, which were given the nod for use in the next general elections, could be tampered with to manipulate the results.

PPP leader Sherry Rehman had described November 17, 2021 as one of the darkest days in the country’s history.

She had added that parliament was deprived of the right to representation during the joint sitting.

“The whole voting process was trampled on in the presence of the speaker. The government passed laws which were rejected.”