ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Thursday expressed grave concern over the ECP’s excuses for granting the overseas Pakistanis their right of voting and urged Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim to intervene and implement the direction made by the Supreme Court in this regard.
The PTI chief made this statement during his meeting with a 30-member delegation comprising eminent members of the overseas Pakistanis who called on him here to discuss the matter.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had reiterated its stance that it might be impossible to include overseas Pakistanis in the polling process with days left in the general elections due to legal and other factors.
“Overseas Pakistanis are an asset for the country and denying them the right to vote is a grave injustice. It was PTI that had filed a petition in the Supreme Court for giving right of vote to overseas Pakistanis and after the decision of the apex court every effort should have been made to ensure that this became possible,” a statement issued here quoted Imran Khan as telling the delegates.
The PTI chief said unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles were being made as an excuse just to deny the overseas Pakistanis of their right and this was cause of grave concern for his party.
Khan said that he could not comprehend as to why the options of Nadra's e-voting software and postal ballot were being opposed to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis.
“It is a fact that the Pakistanis living in other countries are our ambassadors. They are sending billions of dollars every year from abroad which was a major source of running our expenditure. But unfortunately, the government institutions have been denying them their basic right for which the overseas Pakistanis are feeling detached,” he said.
Imran Khan urged the CEC and the chief justice to take cognisance of the matter and take measures o remove any hurdles in way of the right to vote to the Pakistanis living abroad.
“Our Pakistani brothers and sisters need to be brought in the mainstream. The refusal of right to vote to them has made them second-rate citizens. They are also facing problems due to the refusal of passports to them. The CEC must act to ensure right to vote for overseas Pakistanis,” Khan concluded.
