The Pakistani expatriate community expressed disappointment as the Pakistan government still has not given overseas workers the right to vote while abroad in the upcoming parliament elections.
The general elections are scheduled to be held to elect members of Parliament for 14th National Assembly of Pakistan. The current Parliament term will end on or before March 18.
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had enrolled as voters 4.3 million Pakistanis living abroad who possessed national identity cards and able to cast their votes in the constituencies where they had been registered. However, they cast ballots in Pakistan on polling day.
The subject of voting for overseas Pakistani was raised again in country’s Parliament upper house where Law Minister Farooq Naek said that, “The options of allowing them to exercise their right through postal ballot, or allow establishment of polling stations at Pakistan’s foreign missions had been considered. But a mechanism could not be finalized as yet and such a legislation would not be possible before the upcoming polls,” he told the house.
He said there were complexities involved and the government would not take any step that could affect the polls.
The overseas Pakistanis consists of about 4 percent of the total population of the country and contribute $12 to $13 billion precious foreign exchange to the state exchequer every year.
The issue of overseas Pakistani voting rights dates to at least 1993 when the Pakistan Supreme Court has directed government to consider the voting right for its nationals who are living in abroad.
In 1997 then-Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef appointed a cabinet committee to study the feasibility of granting the voting rights to overseas Pakistanis, since then series of studies been carried out by successive prime ministers. Many alternatives have been suggested for absentee voting, including through Internet. But due physical feasibility and logistics abroad, government officials say they have limited options.
Internet-based solutions where registered overseas Pakistani can print the ballot paper online and post online was one solution, but it may be several years before Pakistan is technologically prepared to implement such a program.
In this method, the Election Commission uploads e-ballot on its website and overseas Pakistanis can download, exercise their franchise and post it back as per the norms defined by ECP in the ballot. This would reduce the logistics and finance involved in mailing postal ballot from Pakistan government and saves money and time of overseas Pakistanis.
Pakistan Tahreek e Insaf and MQM are strongly demanding to accord voting rights to overseas Pakistanis along with other political parties.
The government is examining all available feasibilities including online where overseas Pakistanis can cast their votes, said Pakistan diplomat Sohail Ali Khan.
He said that overseas Pakistanis who possess the NICOP (National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis) and above 18 years age can cast their vote in Pakistan. He said the Pakistan Consulate in Jeddah issues average of 400 such cards every day to its nationals.
There are 1.8 million Pakistanis are living in Kingdom and they constitute large segment of overseas voters.