Daily Times

In a historic decision, the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday allowed Pakistanis residing abroad to cast their votes in the upcoming by-polls, scheduled for October 14.

“Many congratulations to overseas Pakistanis today,” said Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, saying that their right to vote has been accepted. Now the ECP is responsible for implementation of the order, he said

The top judge further added that ballots of overseas Pakistanis should be included in the final count.

Overseas Pakistanis would be participating in the by-election through i-voting, a system that allows voters to cast ballots from any computer connected to the internet anywhere in the world.

In case of conflict, ballots cast through i-voting would be separated, the chief justice remarked.

“The pilot project should be completed according to ECP regulations and operation plan,” he ordered, adding: “[We] are grateful to the ECP and NADRA for building the pilot project.”

Justice Nisar ordered NADRA to cooperate with ECP to make the electoral process of the pilot project fool-proof.

If the pilot project of overseas Pakistanis voting in the by-elections ends successfully, it will lead to the court granting expats the right to vote in the general elections.

The judgement was issued by a three-judge bench headed by the CJP, which was hearing petitions at the apex court’s Lahore registry filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and others, seeking voting rights for overseas Pakistanis.

In June this year, the top court had put off the hearing of the case until after the July 25 general elections after it was informed that the idea could not be materialised due to paucity of time and need for multiple tests of the specially designed software.

Published in Daily Times, August 18^th 2018.