ISLAMABAD: A three-member Supreme Court bench on Friday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take immediate steps to register the vote of overseas Pakistanis, keeping in mind that they should not be deprived of the right to vote.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sh. Azmat Saeed, was hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan seeking arrangements for eligible overseas Pakistanis to cast their votes.

The chief justice said that the court had communicated to the ECP for many days that time was very short. The court directed the ECP to set up a separate desk at its office for dealing with overseas Pakistani votes.

The court asked the ECP to take the guidance and assistance of Ministry for Overseas Pakistanis, Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) and National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) for registering the vote of overseas Pakistanis.

The court directed the attorney general to get assistance of the Information Technology (IT) Ministry and Nadra to devise an acceptable strategy to register the vote of those overseas.

ECPs counsel Muhammad Munir Peracha told the court that an amendment in the law was mandatory to grant those overseas the right and facility of casting their vote.

The counsel said that over 4.4 million overseas Pakistani voters had so far been registered out of 7.5 million overseas voters.

Attorney General Irfan Stated that government had not deprived any overseas Pakistani voter of his right to cast vote, adding that if any overseas Pakistani voter wanted to cast his vote, they could come to their respective constituency to cast their vote.

The court directed the ECP and attorney general to take immediate steps to facilitate overseas Pakistanis in casting their votes in the upcoming general elections.  The hearing was adjourned till March 19.