CJ says efforts should be made to grant overseas Pakistanis voting rights

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has remarked that without wasting any time efforts should be made to grant voting rights to overseas Pakistanis.

A three member bench of the apex court resumed hearing of the overseas Pakistanis voting rights case. During proceedings, Chief Justice Chaudhry said that it was possible that overseas Pakistanis might be deprived of casting their votes if a bill was to be formulated.

The minutes of a meeting between the attorney general and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were presented before the court by Deputy Attorney General Sheikh Chandio. According to Chandio, another meeting would be called to discuss legislation and a bill pertaining to this issue.

The minutes of the meeting stated that if overseas Pakistanis were granted the right to vote then people from one province would want to vote in another province.

There are currently over 1.6 million Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia, 1.3 million in UAE, 364,000 in Britain and 130,000 in the US.

The hearing of the case has been adjourned till March 4.