Deadline for overseas Pakistanis to register on i-voting website expires

E-Paper | April 29, 2026

The deadline for overseas Pakistanis to register on the i-voting website launched by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) expired on Monday 9am, DawnNews TV reported.

Out of 790,000 Pakistanis living abroad, of which 631,909 were eligible for i-voting, only 7,419 people registered to vote out of 11,000 accounts created on the website. The registration period lasted for 17 days.

The ECP had launched the Overseas Voting System on Sept 1 for by-elections in 37 constituencies for both national and provincial assembly seats that are to be held on Oct 14. The ECP will email voter passes to all registered voters from Oct 10-14 through which they will be able to log in to the website.

Voting procedure for overseas Pakistanis

On polling day, the registered voters shall log in to the website using their credentials and enter the 'voter pass' emailed to him by the ECP. This will direct the voter to their registered national and provincial assembly constituencies to enable them to cast their vote.

A designated list of candidates of the selected constituency will be displayed by the system and the voter shall select the election symbol of their candidate to cast their vote. Upon successful submission of the vote, a “confirmation” message will be displayed on the screen.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated the number of overseas Pakistanis to be 7.9 million. The correct figure is 790,000.

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SHAHID SATTAR

Sep 17, 2018 03:56pm

How many registered? What costs to the poor exchequer? Another exercise we could have lived without.

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Saeed Issaq

Sep 17, 2018 04:02pm

As an overseas Pakistani, I tried to register but due to the complicated requirement of providing both NICOP card (which I have) as well as a MR Pakistani passport (which I don't have), I could not register. A majority of overseas Pakistani's are in this same position. The condition for requiring both is not only unnecessary but also illogical, it should have been either one or the other. Many more OPs would then have registered!

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zahid

Sep 17, 2018 04:02pm

I tried and after entering details, the systems said "you are not eligible" even though I have an ID card for overseas Pakistanis. I do not understand what is going on.

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Harmony-1©

Sep 17, 2018 04:04pm

The process of registration is nearly impossible hence the reason for low 'interest' of overseas Pakistanis. Most overseas Pakistanis in the West have NICOP only but no passport whereas both are required to be eligible. It makes no sense why both are required if NICOP alone makes us a Pakistani. Second hurdle is they need passport number and ID card issue date of a relative to cross check your ID. That's a breach of the relative’s confidentiality of ID.

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najam

Sep 17, 2018 04:22pm

You are only allowed to register, if election is happening in your constituency!

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Waqar

Sep 17, 2018 04:22pm

The number is not that small considering it is being taken for bypoll election.

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Ghazanfar

Sep 17, 2018 04:25pm

Get facts right. Not 7.9 million are allowed to register. Only those can be registered who are already registered in their constituency and if there is an election scheduled in their constituency.

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Razeen

Sep 17, 2018 04:27pm

People should be incentivized for registering.

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Khan

Sep 17, 2018 04:31pm

Many overseas Pakistani doesn't have readable Pakistani Passport to vote,they have Nicop with Foreign Passport.

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Saad

Sep 17, 2018 04:33pm

It’s very easy to register. Reason you are unable to Register is that you are not eligible i.e. only the people of those constituencies are eligible where by elections are about to happen.

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Mustafa

Sep 17, 2018 04:37pm

That’s not a fair assessment. 7.9m overseas Pakistanis are registered in different zones all over Pakistan. The voting is only in a few constituencies and only Pakistanies registered from there can vote. So 7,410 is not a bad number.

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furqan

Sep 17, 2018 04:37pm

what a comparison. Online registration is only for those overseas who come under bi elections constituencies. not all 7.9 million fall under this criteria. so all 7.9 million cant register.

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Sameer

Sep 17, 2018 04:45pm

@SHAHID SATTAR they provide remittances that keep the country going. Let's not use this as an excuse to keep them out of the process that could've banished the corrupt a long time ago.

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Mustafa Ali Shah

Sep 17, 2018 04:48pm

As mentioned above it was due to the ridiculous and lame procedure listed on the ECP Web site. Instead of making things easier they made it deliberately difficult. Secondly, only the voters who were resident of the (by-election) constituencies were registered. It was NOT the registration of all the overseas Pakistanis. Once again, I was really disappointed at the standard of our Govt. Employees, they do the work halfheartedly, which is a waste of public time and money.

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Faisal Sharif

Sep 17, 2018 04:52pm

I tried to register but system not responding. Continuous wait going on wait mode.

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Yub

Sep 17, 2018 04:59pm

The ecp systems are bogus like rts. No wonder

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KKKhan

Sep 17, 2018 05:08pm

Rest all are blue collar workers,who are not aware

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Taha

Sep 17, 2018 05:09pm

I tried to get nicop but money was not transferred . Lost somewhere inbetween .

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Zia

Sep 17, 2018 05:15pm

Do they know why people did not register? Not any effort or ad to inform people and requirements are so high and illogical that they are asked for new valid passport numbe; illogical because most of the people dont carry Pakistani passport. That is why Musharraf started Nicop, a very good step that India is trying to copy too. Requirement must be either Nicop OR Valid passport and advertise online and TV.

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Khan.

Sep 17, 2018 05:23pm

@Waqar Number is relatively small for me, considering 37 constittuency which includes 11 NA and 26 PA. so in short average 195 Voters per constiteuncy registered which is nothing and will not going to change the results unless margin of victory is really thin..

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Taimoor khan

Sep 17, 2018 05:27pm

"Out of 7.9 million Pakistanis living abroad, only 7,410 people registered to vote out of the paltry 11,000 accounts created on the website." This statement is very misleading. First thing first, the I voting is only allowed in by elections, meaning only for hand full constituencies. Secondly, the system wont allow registration if you don't belong to those constituencies.

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Sep 17, 2018 05:33pm

I registered successfully. Needed my passport and NICOP. Also my brothers NICOP expiry date and father's father name. Excellent work done by ECP. Can't wait to vote for the first time.

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Ahmad

Sep 17, 2018 05:36pm

We checked eligibility of all staff in Dubai office but out of 30 only 1 was eligible for voting... Interest is there but due to ineligibility issue most of us unable to vote for this time :(

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Imran

Sep 17, 2018 05:47pm

two weeks is too short time since many expat Pakistanis need to get NICOP first which itself takes up to a month!

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Asif

Sep 17, 2018 05:52pm

This is insane, why would you give just few days to register with?

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suhaib qaiser

Sep 17, 2018 06:07pm

The system is flawed. I belong to NA243 and the sms details confirm that. I am also a NICOP holder. But based on NADRA rules when I updated my NIC (smart card) after creating my NICOP that converted my status back to resident of Pakistan (and not oversees). NADRA needs to come up with clear instruction on how this thing is done. Why spent so much money on something where you know nobody would be able to use it.

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Asim Malik

Sep 17, 2018 06:20pm

@zahid same here and for another dozen of my friends. Couldn't fund any online support or customer service either.

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Shy Guy

Sep 17, 2018 06:31pm

And 10% of who register will give 1000 dollars

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Salman Dhedhi

Sep 17, 2018 06:35pm

My wife and I both have NICOP but our MR Pakistani passports have expired. We tried to register but the system did not let us register. The error message we got was that we are not eligible to register.

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Vikas

Sep 17, 2018 07:31pm

Charge a fee of 1000 USD to get the name registered. Problem for collecting alms for the dam, solved!!

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Jameel

Sep 17, 2018 07:32pm

Why there is an expiry date attached to register, as if the election is happening in next few weeks besides why we need both Nicop and passport to register, can't they make the process simple. I guess a huge reasoning education is required for the individuals involved in this registration exercise

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Pakamat

Sep 17, 2018 08:27pm

While moving in the right direction this is another system designed by a bureaucrat without any consultation with the concerned parties ie overseas Pakistani. How many dual national overseas Pakistanis with NICOP have valid machine readable passports? Any online system is not foolproof but with only about 1% registering or able to register you have to see where improvements can be made.

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Omar

Sep 17, 2018 08:51pm

Was not even aware that the registration was taking place. Would have been nice if we were better informed

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Shahbaz Masih

Sep 17, 2018 08:55pm

We are 4 persons

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Bilal Khan

Sep 17, 2018 09:04pm

I could not register

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Ali

Sep 17, 2018 10:45pm

There s a zero adver or compaing from election commission, overseas pakistanies hv no idea of the process and which halke the mid tem electiona are going to be held.

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Qaisar Zaman

Sep 17, 2018 11:23pm

The site did not allow me to register despite the fact that I am eligible, have an update NICOM card, I tried a number time and was told that I am not eligible.There is no advice line, support or complain dept. A number of my contacts succeeded in registering and yet some had the same problem as me. I wonder how many might have had the same problem and will fail to vote.

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Shahzada Irfan Ahmed

Sep 17, 2018 11:23pm

The number of overseas Pakistanis needs to be re-checked. It's far more that 790,000

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Anwar Qurershi

Sep 17, 2018 11:26pm

The requirements should be one NICOP or Passport. You cannot have both. People who immigrated to many countries may not have Pak Passport but they carry NICOP to visit Pakistan on foreign passport. Based on this reason the requirements should only be NICOP, I agree

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Ali

Sep 18, 2018 01:06am

This exercise is very good and will help as test case for next general election. EC should do it in all for subsequent semi elections to learn from mistakes and incorporate improvements. EC should send text messages via embassies to individuals who are eligeable to vote to get registered. This will be a great service to nation.

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Kashif

Sep 18, 2018 02:15am

I wanted to register. My NICOP card renewal took more than 3 weeks! Even with urgent renewal application fee ! I wasted money and is of no use to the country. NADRA, please pull up you socks,,,, urgent means urgent.

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Asad Ali

Sep 18, 2018 08:42am

how to register online voting process.

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nisar ahmed jiskani balouch

Sep 19, 2018 11:14am

How many registered? What costs to the poor exchequer? Another exercise we could have lived without.

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