Request for a report on overseas Pakistanis’ voting rights. LHC requested that voting be made an unalienable right, regardless of a state’s boundaries.
LAHORE: Justice Rasaal Hasan Syed of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has asked the relevant parties to submit a detailed report on the steps being taken to grant overseas Pakistanis the right to vote.
The deputy attorney general was questioned by the court over the release of the necessary funds.
A petition challenging the denial of voting rights to Pakistanis living abroad was being heard by Justice Rasaal.
The ministry of law, the ministry of the interior, the ministry of foreign affairs, the ministry for Pakistanis living abroad, the ministry of information technology and telecommunication, and the provincial government were all named as respondents by the petitioner, Munir Ahmad.
Through its secretary and the National Database and Registration Authority, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was also designated as a respondent (Nadra).
Representatives of Nadra informed the court that Rs2.8 billion was needed during the hearing.
The petitioner’s attorney, Azhar Siddique, told the court that the constitution did not make a distinction between Pakistanis residing abroad and Pakistanis who were citizens, and that depriving the former of their right to vote was against the law.
He emphasised that the federal government has a duty to guarantee them their fundamental rights.
In his words, there was a “failure of constitutional and statutory functionaries of the state,” primarily of the respondents, to carry out their constitutional and statutory obligations by defending the fundamental rights of the “public at large,” especially the overseas Pakistanis, with respect to the right that was constitutionally granted to them as they were an integral part of the country’s democratic process.
He said that the constitution safeguards each and every Pakistani citizen’s fundamental rights.
The right to vote has been acknowledged by the Supreme Court of Pakistan as a fundamental citizen right in many of its rulings.
“A man’s right to vote is not constrained by the borders of his country because, as a citizen of a state, he has the right to exercise it wherever he may be. The ability to vote for a Pakistani living abroad is equivalent to that of a Pakistani living in their country, he continued.
He asked the court to deem voting a fundamental and unalienable right, regardless of the state’s boundaries.
He further asked the court to rule that Pakistanis living abroad have the right to vote in local government elections in addition to federal and provincial elections.
