Voting rights for expatriates
A belated consensus has emerged between the opposition and the government to concede the right of vote to overseas Pakistanis. The Supreme Court has also supported the demand. What remains to be seen is whether all the required formalities can be completed within time to allow the expatriates to vote for the first time. Had the political parties concentrated on the issue instead of exhausting their energies on providing dual nationality holders the right to get elected, all expatriates would have been voting in the forthcoming elections.
There are presently around seven million Pakistanis living abroad, more than half of them working in Saudi Arabia, UAE and United Kingdom. The expatriates thus comprise nearly three percent of the total population. The vast majority belongs to the working class who are not likely to contest the elections but are keen to exercise their right to vote. Those who show inclination to contest elections or become ministers belong to a mini minority settled in the US and Europe comprising businessmen or well-to-do professionals. As they can finance the political parties at home, their voice has carried more weight with the parties like the PPP, MQM and others who recently lobbied on their behalf. It is, however, the Pakistani blue collar labour which sends the bulk of remittances that climaxed to $ 13 billion in 2012, thus forming the largest source of foreign exchange after exports. Over the last several years, the remittances have maintained a steadily rising trend. Those who send the bulk of their earnings to the country deserved to have been granted the right to vote long ago.
All voters are required to be in possession of CNICs. One is not sure if all overseas Pakistanis have acquired the computerised National Identity Cards for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOPs). It is for NADRA to issue NICOPs, or the Smart NICOPs recently introduced, to all the bona fide overseas Pakistanis who do not have them. The CNIC holders are subsequently to be registered with the ECP and their names put on the electoral rolls. All this requires legislation. It has been suggested that MoUs were needed to be signed with some of the host countries which do not allow political activities. The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis had recently sent a draft bill regarding the grant of right to vote to expatriate Pakistanis to the ECP. The later has appointed a committee headed by the ECP secretary and comprising members of the related ministries to examine all aspects of the bill before the bill is presented before Parliament. The process needs to be completed at the earliest to undo the injustice that has been done to the overseas Pakistanis.
