Overseas Pakistanis will get right to vote at any cost, observes LHC judge

Hearing a bunch of petitions seeking voting rights for overseas Pakistanis, Justice Shujaat Ali Khan of Lahore High Court on Tuesday made it clear that overseas would get the right to vote at any cost.

Overseas Pakistanis have a constitutional right to vote.

ECP instructed concerned agencies to chalk out plan and do needful to give voting rights to overseas Pakistanis.

This task would not be accomplished without the cooperation of all institutions.

Our brothers and sisters are living abroad and send remittance to Pakistan. Now it is our duty to make valuable efforts to give them their constitutional right to vote, Justice Khan added.

Secretary Election commission of Pakistan (ECP) told the court that electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been prepared but it needs funds for making it workable on large scale in elections. He submitted that two trials of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) had been conducted, however, the evaluation of the machines was still in progress.

When asked how long the government will take to release the funds, provincial law officer said funds were released to NADRA for this project but they did not work on the project. This made the judge annoyed and he said if so, we send the matter to NAB.

However, the law officer said now the work has started, adding that we are not doing this to anyone but it is our duty.  Secretary ECP said the commission wanted to build a project equipped with modern technology and free of error.

He said there had been several technical issues in the use of the EVMs. He pointed out that the majority of the voters were not familiar with the use of information technology. The secretary said the ECP sent its two reports to the parliamentary committees on the electrical reforms.

Provincial law officer pointed out that the government has passed a bill in the assembly which is currently before the President of Pakistan for approval.

After its final approval, the court will be duly informed, he added. He sought time for further progress on the project.

The court granted time and directed the federal government and the Election Commission to submit a written reply by June 27.