IHC Rejects Plea Against Passage Of Elections (Amend) Bill.

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday turned down a petition filed against the passage of the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 which disallows overseas Pakistanis from voting electronically.

A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah conducted hearing of the petition moved by Dawood Ghaznavi and dual national Atif Iqbal Khan through their counsel Arif Chaudhary Advocate. In the petition, they cited the federation of Pakistan through the secretary of Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as respondents.

After hearing the arguments of the petitioners' counsel, the IHC bench dismissed it in limine and noted that the amended section unequivocally acknowledges the right of an overseas Pakistani to vote in the elections.

However, Justice Athar added that nonetheless, the Election Commission is expected to fulfil its constitutional as well as statutory obligations, so as to complete the process at the earliest in order to enable the overseas Pakistanis to exercise their right to vote in the elections.

He also noted that the august Supreme Court in the case titled 'Dr Farhat Javed Siddique and 15 others v government of Pakistan and others' (PLD 2018 SC 788) has explicitly referred to ascertainment of 'technical efficacy, secrecy, security and above all the financial feasibility.'

'All these factors are to be taken into consideration by the Election Commission in order to enable the overseas Pakistanis to exercise their acknowledged right to vote,' he added.

The bench further said, 'No case is made out for striking down the amended section 94(1) of the Act of 2017. For the above reasons, the instant petition is meritless and, therefore, accordingly dismissed in limine.'

In the petition, the petitioners assailed vires of section 94 inserted in the Elections Act, 2017 through the Elections (Amendment) Act, 2022 and the amended provision is as follows: 'The Commission may conduct pilot projects for voting by Overseas Pakistanis in Bye-elections to ascertain the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of such voting and shall the results with the government, which shall, within fifteen days from the commencement of a session of a House after the receipt of the report, lay the same before both Houses of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament).'

Court says amended section unequivocally acknowledges right of an overseas Pakistani to...