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The United National Movement (MQM) said on Wednesday it would Shelving a Private Member’s Bill Give voting rights to overseas Pakistanis in Parliament.
“Overseas Pakistanis constitute 4-5 per cent of Pakistan’s total population. They contribute $12-13 billion in valuable foreign exchange to the country every year. They should have the right to vote,” said Dr Farooq Sattar, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Affairs.
The news was appreciated by overseas Pakistanis who hoped that something would be done ahead of the upcoming general elections so that they could exercise their right to vote.
Earlier this week, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry also said Pakistanis living abroad should be given voting rights. He said 24 to 25 countries have given voting rights to their citizens living abroad through postal voting system.
Although Pakistan’s Election Commission has been struggling to design a system So far, the Chief Justice has expressed hope that a modality for Pakistanis living abroad to participate in the general elections can be worked out soon.
Do you think this is possible before the upcoming elections? How do you think the Election Commission should deal with this issue? Earlier in January this year, the ECP had told the court that granting voting rights to overseas Pakistanis seemed difficult as there were eight million of them and they lived in different countries.
An Election Commission official noted that most eligible overseas Pakistani voters live in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, where political activity is banned. There are 1.7 million Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia and 1.2 million in the UAE, he said, noting that staff from Pakistani missions abroad would be a problem.
Another issue is related to the postal voting proposal. Officials claim that the election process takes about 45 days to complete and only 15-20 days are left after the final list of candidates is announced – which is too short for the postal voting process. He said that extending the timeline to facilitate overseas Pakistanis is also not feasible.
Given all these hurdles in developing a system to accommodate overseas Pakistani voters, what do you suggest the Election Commission should do? Do they have any hope for the MQM’s Private Member’s Bill?
Based on the experience of other countries, does Pakistan have any relevant models that it can learn from in this regard?
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