Overseas Pakistanis should get voting rights: CJ

Chief Justice Chaudhry remarks Pakistanis living abroad should be provided with postal ballot.

ISLAMABAD: Overseas Pakistanis should be given the right to vote, said Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday.

During the hearing of a case related to bogus voter lists, the chief justice said non-resident Pakistanis are a vital source of foreign income.

Chief Justice Chaudhry remarked that Pakistanis living abroad should be provided with postal ballot.

Earlier, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided against providing voting facilities to overseas Pakistanis for the upcoming general elections.

The commission was considering giving voting rights to more than 4 million Pakistanis who are settled in different countries around the world but decided not to.

The reason for this decision, according to ECP, was that making arrangements for providing voting facilities to so many people abroad would be an impossible task in such a short time as general elections were not far away.