The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed a petition seeking court’s orders for granting voting right to overseas Pakistanis to cast ballots in the upcoming local government (LG) polls in Islamabad.
When an IHC division bench comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Athar Minallah took up the petition, PTI counsel Farrukh Dall appeared before the court and argued that around 5.50 million overseas Pakistanis were registered voters and they should be granted the right to vote.
On this, the bench replied that the court could not interfere as long as the Islamabad LG Bill was not passed by the Senate. The court, however, said that the Supreme Court decision with reference to granting voting right to overseas Pakistanis will be implemented at all costs. The court dismissed the petition.
This is very unfortunate that in Pakistan, every righteous right is denied while the foul one is upheld. Denying the voting right to the 5.5 million overseas is not understandable. While granting this right can bring a number of socio economic benefits to the people of Pakistan. Overseas pakistanis send foreign exchange to the tune of US$ 20 billion every year which give support to make up the deficit in the export – import bill which is about US$ 20 billion say ( $22 billion exports and 42 billion imports), a great contribution in making the pakistan economy sustainable. Not only that, but by giving them voting right, overseas Pakistanis could be induced to invest in pakistan to the tune of billions of dollars in the various sectors of the economy of pakistan particularly in agriculture, industry, trade, services etc. At present. in Pakistan. only 30 -35% voters cast vote and the rest have lost trust in the politics of pakistan. Therefore by addition of 5.5 million voters in the electorate system of pakistan, democracy will be strengthened in the country..
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