ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has expressed the confidence that the mechanism of I-voting developed with an objective to grant right to vote to 7.9 million overseas Pakistanis will be safe, reliable and effective enough to be used as a pilot project during the upcoming by-elections.

The apex court, however, directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to exclude the votes cast by overseas Pakistanis from the official results if the commission was not satisfied about the integrity, safety and reliability of the internet facility.

The ECP will be holding by-elections in 37 constituencies for both national and the provincial assembly seats on Oct 14.

Authored by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, the court judgement stated that the proposed rules developed by the commission would be incorporated in the Election Rules 2017 to enable overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote in the forthcoming by-polls.

The judgement came while hearing a set of petitions moved by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman and Prime Minister Imran Khan along with a group of citizens on behalf of Solicitor Muhammad Dawood Ghazanvi and Farhat Javed and others who had pleaded that the denial of right to participate in the democratic process by the overseas Pakistanis would mean a refusal by the government to carry out its constitutional obligation.

In the verdict, the Supreme Court ordered that the by-poll results and the vote of count cast by overseas Pakistanis through the I-voting mechanism would be kept separately and secret till the time the ECP was satisfied about the technical efficacy, secrecy and security of the votes cast through the system.

“In case such determination, made on the basis of reasons, is in the negative and ECP is not satisfied about the integrity, safety and reliability of the systems and the votes cast through the same; the ECP will exclude the segregated votes cast by the overseas Pakistanis from the official result of the by-elections,” the judgement stated.

This safety feature will ensure that the elections are founded upon verified and authenticated votes only, it added.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2018