Overseas Pakistanis’ right to vote: SC sets aside Registrar Office’s objections

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the Registrar Office’s objections on the petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to ensure overseas Pakistanis’ right to vote in the general elections

Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who will lay down his robes on August 13, on Wednesday, heard the PTI’s petition in the chambers and after hearing the counsel, allowed the appeal and directed the SC office to fix it in the open court for hearing.

The PTI has filed a petition against amendments to the Elections Act, 2017 — which disallows overseas Pakistanis from voting electronically. It contended that the amendments were “discriminatory” and “violative of fundamental rights and merits”.

The bill seeking electoral reforms was passed by the National Assembly and the Senate in May this year. The bill was passed by the joint sitting of parliament after President Dr Arif Alvi sent it back without giving his assent.

In the petition, the federation, through the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) are cited as respondents.

The petitioner contended that the amendment made to Section 94(1) violated the fundamental right to vote of 10 million overseas Pakistanis. “Overseas Pakistanis send home remittances of approximately $30 billion annually, constituting approximately 10 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product”.

He further stated that under Article 5(2) of the Constitution, overseas Pakistanis were subject to the laws of Pakistan and even to its tax laws under “certain circumstances”.

“To disenfranchise such a large group of Pakistani citizens, on the basis of their locality, by not granting them the facilities for the exercise of their fundamental right to vote, would be to violate the principles of freedom of association and equality of citizens enshrined in Articles 17, 25, and 51 of the Constitution,” the petition added.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah will take up PTI chief Imran Khan’s petition against the recent amendments in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws on Friday.

Currently, four important PTI petitions are pending in the apex court.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022