We are too far away from the e-voting practicability due to the lack of approach, facility and online capabilities of our overseas Pakistanis in general.

The process of registration is a sheer disappointment, hence the reason for low 'interest' of overseas Pakistanis. Most overseas Pakistanis in the West have NICOP only but no passport whereas both are required to be eligible. It makes no sense why both are required if NICOP alone makes us a Pakistani.

E-voting has more problems than it provides solutions. It should be discontinued.

Remittances may help Pakistan and families of Diaspora but it does not qualify you to be able to decide the future of Pakistan by your votes. When you in the first place left the homeland and are providing services in another country instead of yours. And their current response to i-voting further proves the point that they are more interested in making a profit then taking part in Pakistan's development. So instead of wasting time and resources on overseas i voting, spend it on reforms at home and try to perfect the election system before 2023.

Sir, I'm overseas Pakistani settled in Oman. For me it's my safety and well being first. Until it's clear that there is absolutely no risk in revealing officially that I am from Pakistani, I would prefer to remain as before. Hence Pakistan govt must ensure no risk in registration as overseas Pakistani. Only then myself and my friends here will move towards registration. Please don't misunderstand us.

Now what should be done is to again open for I-voting registration when elections will be near . Then at that time more and more people will register.

People maybe didn't registered because actually elections were over. When elections will be near then about over 50pc will register

:P Well tbh most abroad Pakistanis are unconcerned with these affairs.

Obviously if you require a NICOP and Pakistani passport to register than very few will be able too. Not sure of the logic and why it was made so difficult to register. It should be simple leveraging your NICOP card to register and believe then you will see an increase in i-voting by overseas Pakistanis.

I think Pakistani passport was required for registration and a lot of overseas Pakistani's doesn't hold one.

The requirement of Machine Readable Passport is a big hurdle. I am dual citizen and have National ID card and also NICOP but never needed the Machine Readable Pakistani Passport. Big hassle to get one just to vote.

How can overseas Pakistanis vote if they are asked to produce machine readable Pakistani passports. Process should be simple and based on NICOP only.

Election Comission should be dismayed. It should be for the failure to raise awareness amongst overseas Pakistani for their right to vote through this medium.

Maybe because this election was not advertised in their countries? It will be great if election commission could send a reminder email to those living abroad so that they know they have a responsibility to fulfil.

There will be all sorts of complaints from Overseas Pakistanis that they didn't know when and how to register, the procedure is cumbersome, they didn't have internet or probably the Embassy is too far to go and the list will continue. The truth is that Overseas Pakistanis hardly vote in their host country's elections too where the polling process is relatively easier and available for a longer period of time than a day. Its all about priorities and interests. Overseas Pakistanis Love Pakistan for sure and people should not assume anything from dismal statistics of voter registration.

Of course. I wanted to register for I-Vote but it asked for the Passport Number (Machine Readable) in order to get registered. I have NICOP and uses Passport from my resident country. Should not your NICOP be enough??? Do Election Commission of Pakistan requires passport number of Pakistanis living in Pakistan for vote registration??? Why overseas Pakistanis are treated like that in Pakistan??? I don't need to carry two passports so why impose on me???? Chief Justice please take notice

Overseas Pakistani doesn't have Pakistanis Passport ,which is required to vote. Remove this requirement than all overseas Pakistani will vote which have NICOP Pakistan ID with foreign Passport.

It is a poor job on part of ECP. As a dual citizen living in US I want to contribute and vote but the registration mechanism is pathetic. First when I asked for readable passport the embassy said they ran out of books. They gave me a temporary passport with 2 years of validity . I have a valid NICOP why is that not enough

not knowing the credibility of the person how can one vote from overseas unless one is voting for the party regardless of who is standing in

@M.Saeed, Why? Is internet facility difficult overseas compared to its availability in Pakistan? You don't make sense!

@King Akbar, "Well tbh most abroad Pakistanis are unconcerned with these affairs." You know nothing!

How we vote with no information on where and how. I think NADRA needs to take some steps to accommodate people who want to vote form overseas.

I tried. Provided all the informations but the system kept rejecting. Sent emails after emails on "Contact Us ". No response received, and still there is no response to tell me where did I go wrong.

@Maverick I wanted to register but I cannot. I will need to get a passport sorted which I was told was not needed as I had a NICOP (as pointed earlier as well in another comment). The system seems to have been designed to dissuade people. It was successful in doing so.

E voting is being tested with the wrong constituencies to make it fail.

I dont't have both Pakistani passport and nicop. To travel to PK i only need Nicop with my foriegn passport so why should i get a pakistani passport which is required by e-voting. sorry it needs to be changed otherwise it's useless.

@bhaRAT©, I agree we wanted to register for I vote . We have NICOP but Unfortunately the requirement was to also have pakistani passport . For future either NICOP or Pakistani passport should be able to get people register for ivote. I say let’s change the requirement to just have one thing. Thanks Asif

@Maverick, The part 1 of your comment makes a lot of sense but Part 2 where you started questioning Overseas Pakistani's (OP) love and commitment towards Pakistan is baseless and probably you might not have met with OP or you are just writing in an isolation.

There is a myth that non registration is directly proportional to the requirement of having a NICOP and a passport together. How many Pakistani's do have a dual nationality? Most of them live in Middle East where they only have Pakistani nationality, so they do carry Passport and NICOP together. Moving along, how many of those living in Europe, America and Canada do have a dual nationality? There may be a score of people who are still permanent resident, green card holder etc. and still hold just a Pakistani nationality, a Pak passport and a NICOP. The point I am trying to make here is that, Overseas Pakistanis are not very much interested to vote. Few of them could be but rules cannot be bent to accommodate all.

Should not be a surprise. Nadra did not allow overseas Pakistanis to vote in general election.Wait and see until next general ection.?

The problem has been the requirement of the passport. We have NICOP but not the passport now applying for the passport will be ready for evoting next time.

You have made it so hard for people. Where do people have and bring their machine read passports. This program is not for dual citizens.

The keyword is 'overseas'. Why are they overseas in the first place?

One of the main reasons for the very poor response to the online vote registration process, especially from the countries where Pakistanies hold dual nationalities, is the requirement to hold both the National IDs card and machine readable passports to be able to register to vote. When there is no requirement for dual nationals to hold machine readable Pakistani passporths to travel to Pakistan then why this condition has been imposed to register to vote online? I would never apply for a machine readable passport and pay the passport application fee for the sole purpose of registering to vote. There is no logic in imposing this condition which implies that holding only an overses NICOP is not a satisfactory proof of one's Pakistani nationality. To implement the Supreme Court's decision in letter and spirit, I suggest that the Election Commission of Pakistan removes the condition to hold both machine readable passport and NICOP to be able to register to vote.

There are all sorts of negative comments here. E-vote is very new thing. Many overseas Pakistanis don't even know there was voting in PP wherever.. If someone is registered to vote, a message should go to them, reminding they have to vote and what steps they need to follow. Lastly, give it time people and don't be impatient. If you want democracy to flourish, give these things time and people will know their rights

There was zero communication on how to register to vote, how do you expect a turnout?

Error!

The real test of this matter will be in general elections. Nobody cares about by-polls.

Only the residents of that by polling constituency are eligible to be registered and that too required a NICOP and a Pakistani Passport, some people in the policy making don not want to overseas Pakistani to participate in polling.

They know their data and bank accounts are being targeted. Why will they. Even sending money to hone is being scanned

As an overseas Pakistani I feel you guys need to do a better job promoting these things. Many of us are likely never aware of these by polls dates until after we read articles like this

This is proof of how poorly this expensive facility has been publicised by the ECP bureaucrats to expat Pakistanis

@bhaRAT©, The e-voting system has been developed without making any research on overseas Pakistanis residential status and what kind of Pakistani documents they hold. The number of registrations will always be disappointing unless the registration system is simplified by giving more single Pakistani document options to overseas Pakistanis. Please mark my words if anyone want the e-voting to be successful the concerned authorities have to improve and simplify it by making the necessary change for which it is necessary to know about their problems in registering for e-voting from different countries.

Who pays tax to govt is eligible to vote.

My feedback to ECP and NADRA; the i-voting registration for overseas Pakistanis is a shithole process where both Pakistani passport and NICOP are required to register. Many overseas Pakistanis have either NICOP or Pakistani passport but not both, so how the hell we can register. ECP and NADRA has myopic and tunnel view of this process and never actually consulted or communicated well enough with anyone to develop a simple and better i-voting system. I only need my home address to register for voting in Australia and I just voted last week in Victoria State elections, no issue. It is natural habit of many many Pakistani departments to play the blame game, and ECP and NADRA are doing exactly doing this.

People see how the Naya Pakistan is unfolding.

Half cooked solution used only for political expediency by PTI is unfolding.

Backlash of 100 days performance, is it?

More advertisement by ECP/Media could have attracted more e voters. This is the first time, I got to know, that the e voting was available in this election.

@Life, Obviously, you are not an overseas Pakistani and don’t understand the issues. Most people in those classes you listed such as people who are permanent residents in western countries or are on work permits in middle eastern countries, don’t need and generally don’t have a NICOP. Therefore, it becomes the same issue for them of needing a document they don’t possess. It should be a passport OR a NICOP. The passport doesn’t have to be currently valid as well.

@M.Saeed, - it is only partially good for the educated class. What about the large number of Pakistanis in MEC and other countries (the unskilled class) who don't use the internet. Pak embassies and missions should offer the voting facility.

Only people with both Pakistani passport and NICOP can get registered. I think this is flawed. As people who have Pakistani passport don’t have need for NICOP. Only those without Pakistani passport apply for NICOP so they don’t need visa to enter. My family and I are overseas Pakistanis. We tried to register. We have NICOP but no Pakistani passport. There are many people with Pakistani passport but no NICOP. A vast majority of overseas Pakistanis still can’t vote.