ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to reject petitions seeking right to vote for overseas Pakistanis by challenging an amendment to Section 94 of the Elections Act, 2017.
The request has been moved on behalf of ECP Secretary Omar Hamid Khan highlighting that the overseas Pakistanis’ right to vote was very much recognised and the ECP was working tirelessly to extend this right, but a blanket and unqualified right cannot be claimed.
There is no denial of the right in question as it was merely subject to regulation and modalities which need to be fixed by the law, the ECP pleaded, adding that obligations being proposed through the petitions cannot be imposed on the state when no violation of any fundamental right has been made out.
Several petitions are pending before the court challenging amendments to the Elections Act 2017 filed by PTI founder Imran Khan, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and others.
On Aug 24, 2022, the apex court had ordered removing objections raised by the registrar office with an observation that the Pakistani expatriates should be extended facilities on a priority basis since they contribute around $30 billion of badly needed foreign exchange to the country.
Now the ECP through a fresh application has contended that Constitution was based on trichotomy of power in which each organ of the state has its sphere of jurisdiction and thus cannot be transcend into the domain of other.
Unless the constitutionality of the law is tested on the touchstone of constitutional provisions and struck down, it will remain law of the land and duty of the court would be to enforce the same.
There is no caveat to the contention but the modalities of how voting right is to be exercised is something that is within the domain of the state’s legislative powers, the ECP said, adding that overseas Pakistan already enjoy the facility to vote in their respective constituencies within Pakistan.
Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2025
