(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to ensure that overseas Pakistanis exercise their right to vote in the upcoming by-polls as a pilot project.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar passed the order while hearing petitions seeking directions to the ECP to make arrangements to enable overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote.
These petitions were moved by solicitor Muhammad Dawood Ghaznavi and other expatriates in 2015. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan became a party to the proceedings in January this year.
During the proceedings at the Lahore registry of the apex court, ECP secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh told the bench that rules had been framed in the light of its power enshrined under Section 239 of the Elections Act 2017.
He said that a mechanism of i-voting (Internet voting) had been evolved with the contribution of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to facilitate overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote.
NADRA chairman Usman Mobeen was also present in the court.
'Congratulations to overseas Pakistanis, the chief justice said, remarking that it would be for the first time that expatriates would participate in the polling process.
He directed the ECP and the NADRA chief to complete the pilot projects in view of the election law and make sure that the process of i-voting is foolproof and flawless.
Nisar also ordered the ECP to conduct pilot projects for i-voting by overseas Pakistanis in by-polls to ascertain the technical efficacy, secrecy, and security of voting and present the results before parliament as required under section 94 of the Elections Act 2017.
He further directed the ECP to keep the results of the i-voting segregated from the basic balloting process so that it could not affect the election results should any dispute arose.
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