Senate panel asks govt to drop proposal seeking voting rights for expats

Senate’s standing committee agrees with information minister's opinion on overseas Pakistanis' right to vote

ISLAMABAD: A senate panel has requested the government to drop a proposal against providing voting rights to overseas Pakistanis.

Earlier, a panel working on electoral reforms under the headship of a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker with representation of all parliamentary parties had unanimously demanded the federal government to make arrangements to include overseas Pakistanis in the election process.

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The proposal first came under consideration after a judgement passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) during the tenure of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked the government to extend voting rights to overseas Pakistanis.

In his recent remarks, Federal Minister for Information Pervez Rashid, in his personal capacity, opposed the proposal, terming the demand as unfeasible.

“There are certain barricades. Laws of many countries restrict any such activity on their land,” Rashid said in his statement, pointing out that it will not be possible for an electoral candidate to run election campaign in foreign countries.

The Senate’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice led by Senator Javed Murtaza Abbasi also agreed with the federal minister’s opinion during the meeting and directed the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to write again to Prime Minister Nawaz regarding a reversal of the proposal.

However, the ministry told the panel that the PM’s office had not replied to the ministry’s letter on the subject and that the ministry was still waiting for guidelines on the matter.

Further, the standing committee questioned the parliamentary affairs secretary on the issue and directed him to write to the premier with recommendations of the Senate panel once again.

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This has been one of the main demands of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to ensure the overseas Pakistanis’ right to vote, particularly in the upcoming local government (LG) polls in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), following by similar polls in Punjab and Sindh.

ECP’s stance

The stance of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is similar to that of the federal minister for information.

The top electoral body briefed the electoral reforms committee in May this year on difficulties of giving the Pakistani expats their basic right to vote. “In many countries of the Middle East, where a large number of Pakistanis are concentrated, voting is not allowed under domestic laws,” ECP officials said.

However, the Senate’s panel, led by MNA Zahid Hamid, observed that all the parties want to inculcate legal provisions to allow the overseas Pakistanis the right to vote once legal and technical issues are addressed.