The government has taken a principal decision that the Kashmiris residing in Pakistan would be granted the right of dual registration of vote — in the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and in one electoral area in Pakistan — provided they are in possession of Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) and such cards bear one address of Pakistan, permanent or temporary, after the Law Ministry and three other federal ministries formally approved the proposal, a source in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) told Pakistan Today on Sunday.
The decision, upon which the federal government seems more than determined even in the face of ‘polite’ opposition from the ECP, would add some 400,000-500,000 new voters in the electoral rolls. The proposal to grant the right of dual vote to the Kashmiris has been under consideration by the ECP for months.
The ECP source said that it had sought legal and constitutional opinion of the Law Ministry “as to whether or not the state subjects of Azad Jammu and Kashmir are citizens of Pakistan and whether or not they are entitled to be enrolled in Pakistan as voters, despite the fact that such citizens are also enrolled as voters in the electoral rolls of Azad Jammu and Kashmir”.
The Law Ministry in its opinion, a copy of which was available with Pakistan Today, advised the ECP that those Kashmiris who are residing in Pakistan had the right of dual registration of vote in the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and only in one electoral area in Pakistan, provided they were in possession of CNICs issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and such cards bore one address of Pakistan, permanent or temporary.
Justifying its opinion, the ministry said it examined the matter in light of the constitution and other relevant laws on the subject. It held that according to Article 1: “Pakistan shall be a federal republic to be known as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the territories of Pakistan shall comprise such states and territories as are or may be included in Pakistan, whether by accession or otherwise.”
Article 257 provides that when the people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir decided to accede to Pakistan, the relationship between Pakistan and that state shall be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of that state. The opinion stated further that until the future of the state was determined in accordance with the UNCIP Resolutions, all affairs of its government were being governed under the AJK Interim Constitution Act of 1974.
Kashmiris on the verge of right to dual vote
