ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan Friday questioned that how the amendment of the law of the right to vote of overseas Pakistanis is not constitutionally valid and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to submit a progress report regarding the matter.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan conducted hearing of the petitions of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and President Pakistan Awami Muslim League (AML) Sheikh Rashid and the appeal of Dawood Ghazanavi and dual national Atif Iqbal Khan against the IHC, which on June 6, 2022 had disposed of their petition after they had withdrawn it.
During the hearing, Justice Muneeb Akhtar said that the “Parliament enacted the Election Act in 2017”, adding that “Section 94 of the act regarding the right to vote of overseas Pakistanis is clear.” He further said that “in 2018, the apex court had declared Section 94 as constitutional.”
Justice Muneeb observed that in 2021 the law was further improved and the Parliament in 2022 brought back to the old level,” remarked Justice Akhtar. He said how can the Court now declare the law to be unconstitutional which was declared constitutional in the past?”
During the proceedings, Arif Chaudhry, appearing on behalf of Dawood Ghazanavi and Atif Khan, informed the bench that the polling procedure has been made “difficult” to prevent overseas Pakistanis from voting. He said that under Section 94 of the Elections Act, 2017, the ECP is legally bound to devise a mechanism to enforce the fundamental right of vote of overseas Pakistanis, which had been virtually taken away under the guise of the said amendment act. The petitioners objected to the amendment in Section 94 in the Elections (Amendment) Act, 2022, saying that despite that the law mandated the ECP to take some decisive acts to enable overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote, no action in this regard had been taken by the respondent.