The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the authorities concerned to complete the process of giving right of vote to overseas Pakistanis.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard the overseas Pakistanis’ voting rights case.
Submitting its report, the election commission of Pakistan, pointed out that there were multiple hurdles in providing voting facility to Pakistanis living abroad.
The report said overseas Pakistanis had to register themselves in their respective embassies.
It said over 2.9 million Pakistanis lived in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, a million among them did not have machine readable passports.
The bench observed that all steps including promulgation of an ordinance should be taken to give the right of vote to overseas Pakistanis.
The apex court expressed the confidence that the Election Commission of Pakistan and all other functionaries should implement the plan as early as possible so that the procedure could be finalised for extending the facility to the overseas citizens of Pakistan, enabling them to exercise their right of franchise in the forthcoming general elections.
The court asked the ECP and other functionaries to report progress on the matter and adjourned the hearing for 10 days.
