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and dual national Atif Iqbal Khan against the IHC, which on June 6, 2022 had dis­posed of their petition after they had withdrawn it.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.