The government now only awaiting the concurrence of the UAE to allow overseas Pakistanis there to take part in the May 11 parliamentary polls.
ISLAMABAD: Several countries including Saudi Arabia, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have accepted Pakistan’s request to allow its overseas citizens to cast votes in the upcoming general elections, said a foreign ministry official on Friday.
“We have received concurrence from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Australia, Canada, the UK and the US,” said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Aaziz Ahmed Chaudhry at his weekly briefing.
He said that the government was now only awaiting the concurrence of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to allow overseas Pakistanis there to take part in the May 11 parliamentary polls.
There are about five million eligible Pakistani voters currently living in different parts of the world. However, a majority of them are residing in Saudi Arabia, UAE, the UK, the US and Canada.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has been pushing the Election Commission of Pakistan to make arrangements for the expatriates to cast their ballots in the polls.
Apart from legislation, one of the hurdles was seeking permission from the host countries to allow overseas Pakistanis to take part in the polling.
The spokesperson said that the foreign ministry would extend all possible facilitation for the conduct of polling for overseas Pakistan as soon as a decision is taken by the government in this regard.
“As for countries where polling could be held, the election commission has identified nine countries for polling,” he added.
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Your actions much more depend upon your intentions and if ECP's intentions are rightful then any thing may happen easily.....
What about the 5000+ Pakistanis in New Zealand?, not all of us can go to Canberra to cast our vote. The High Commision in Wellington is just plain useless!!
Lets start with whatever is on offer!!@A patriot:
you will have to go to the nearest consulate or the embassy of Pakistan to cast your vote. @joe Pashi:
Although they have allowed this to happen, how fast can this process be? I doubt they will finalise these things for overseas pakistanis by the time elections are held.
What about Australia's neighbour New Zealand??
What about Pakistanis residing in Malaysia?
Yeah man,
Tareeqe insaf if we want a positive change in pakistan.
Qatar, Italy, Greece, Spain, France and Germany must also be considered in order to allow maximum number of overseas Pakistanis to take part in the polling. Inclusion of these countries would take the number of host countries to 15, with each of the country taking the top 15 positions in the list of countries with significant overseas Pakistani population.
Well..................now what? Who do I call to ask, where to vote in the US? White House will not let me park in their garage!
This must be available wherever there is an embassy or consulate as it needs a secure network connection which already exists in those offices. The reason given being less or more voters in other countries is ridiculous.
what about Pakistanis in Sweden, Norway and Denmark... everyone in europe cant be expected to visit the UK to vote on such a short notice if they are allowed that is...
@Syedpk: millions in these countries...? where did u get your figure?
Looking forward to it, every vote counts against the talibanisation of Pakistan.
What about Malaysia and other South East Asian countries?
Lets build new Pakistan. Vote for PTI
All Ambassadors of the countries should be called in the Foreign Office and should be given the necessary briefing by the representatives of the Election Commission as well as of the Foreign Office so that the Ambassadors of particular countries should further brief to their respective governments about the May 11, 2013 election of Pakistan.
The government of Pakistan should also tell to the Ambassadors that whenever elections will be held in their countries, our government will also facilitate the respective foreign nationals and will assist the Embassies as well as the Consulates, so that foreign nationals should also be able to cast their votes in Pakistan, whenever the elections are held in near future in those particular countries.
Can some one explain to me which international law requires Pakistan to "as" the foreign countries to allow its citizens residing there to vote in Pakistani elections? This is purely a bogus exercise--more smoke and mirrors.
In Bahrain females are allowed to cast their vote.
OK I am really sick of this drama, please get this done, we overseas Pakis want to vote and want really want to know if we can or not.
All these countries are from US block and they are speaking one language. If they are speaking one language, there must be something fishy? What about India and EU?
Bummer! No Germany no France no Spain, millions of Pakistanis are residing there....
What about Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Put together, these countries must have a million Pakistani voters.
Salaam
Plz do something we oversea Pakistani want to cast our vote and have a saying in the choice of next Prime Minister. If the above foreign countries can allow us why don't Pakistan find a way to work around the system. Please work on it asap and let us know Thanks
So Saudi Arab and Bahrain allow Pakistanis to vote and when they will their own citizens (I mean female as well)..
Inshallah, I will vote for change in my country. Pakistan Zindabad.
Great stuff.
But its funny how everything now seems to be going well for overseas voting. Its a wonder why the ECP didn't get on with this sooner, instead of just saying no, no it cant be done. What changed?
It would be great move if overseas voters are allowed
So no more excuses now, all overseas Pakitsani can vote now?